Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us follows a family on a summer vacation. The focus of the promotion of this movie is the filmmaker and Oscar winner Jordan Peele. Peele made a name for himself by creating the box office and sleeper hit Get Out.
The horror movie is popular with a strong show at the box office. The Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming on-demand are happening. Now is your chance to see the movie or see it again.
IMDB plot summary says the movie is about a mother and father, who take their kids to their beach house. They are expecting to enjoy time with friends, but their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some visitors arrive uninvited.
On the coattails of his success, Universal Studios says Peele is bringing an original and provocative thriller to the movie theaters. By watching the movie trailer, it appears there is a family on vacation who has an encounter with another creepy family that looks and sounds just like them. The trailer shows screaming, blood, and the family struggling to survive. I am curious about the significance of the scissors, though. They appear in the poster and trailer. The weaving of each character’s profile view is mysterious and unnerving. I am spooked just thinking about this trailer.
The cast is impressive with Lupita Nyong’o, who won the 2019 New York Film Critics Circle for Best Actress, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Madison Curry, Cali Sheldon, and Noelle Sheldon.
The second trailer is better because Nyong’o’s line about coincidences and things lining up means something, like a dark cloud. Creepy! Horror movie fans rejoice. A horror movie intelligently put together to scare the hell out of you.
Moss attended the red carpet premiere of the movie at SXSW. In this interview, she explains why this is her first time seeing the movie. She also talks about working with the director.
Watching these featurettes brings an understanding that Peele’s movies are not just horror movies. They resonate with learned and well-thought-out Hitchcock movies, with an undercurrent of meanings to the overall story and imagery.
Director Peele talks about making horror movies and why he likes making them. The audiences drive him in this direction of moviemaking.
The following featurettes are about Peele as a storyteller and his reasoning behind making this movie. One particular featurette he talks about is “Doppelgangers.” The word is German and means a double walker. The folklore about this phenomenon is a non-biological look-alike, such as a ghost or an evil twin. Doppelgangers are a sign of bad luck.
Peele refers to movies that use the doppelgänger angle, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield comes to mind. The darker version or morally inverse character of his story – is Orlick.