jordan peele - us
jordan peele - us

Jordan Peele is following up his incredible film Get Out with a film that just might top the first. Peele describes “Us” as a horror film and it’s expected to be released in March. The movie stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke as parents of a family who face a horrifying enemy – a group of sinister beings who look exactly like them. The cast also includes Elizabeth Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Tim Heidecker. Peele has indicated that he wanted to do something a little different after the hugely successful Get Out. If you don’t remember, Get Out was Peele’s directorial debut, and was nominated for multiple Oscars. He won for best original screenplay, and we all know why.

The trailer opens in a similar way to Get Out, with the family (Nyong’o and Duke) driving as Duke’s character sings along to Luniz’s “I Got Five On It”. Once they arrive at their destination, they hang out with another couple (Heidecker and Moss). While on the beach, their son runs off—and, because this is a horror movie, he sees a dark omen: a bloodied man (maybe?) with his arms oddly outstretched. And that‘s when the trouble begins. Later, the son sees mysterious figures in the driveway. Duke’s character goes outside, bat in hand, to ward them off—and that‘s when he realizes that they‘re twisted, clone versions of his partner and kids, except wearing orange jumpsuits and full of bloodlust. Soon enough, the family is in for the fight for their lives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNCmb-4oXJA

When Peele presented the trailer, he spoke about the process of creating the film and the story. Peele indicated that he was largely focused on coming up with a new kind of monster. He notes that the plot of Us hinges on one firm belief – that we are our own worst enemies. He also added that the film isn’t about race. This is likely to come up, given what his first film was about.

“Very important for me was to have a black family at the center of a horror film. But it’s also important to note, unlike Get OutUs is not about race. It is instead about something that I feel has become an undeniable truth. And that is the simple fact that we are our own worst enemies.”

Let’s talk about this idea of a monster, and that we are our own worst enemies. I think that this is a truly interesting theme to explore in terms of a movie, and especially as a horror film. We all know this to be true about ourselves, but the fact that Peele is making it into a movie is something a bit revolutionary.

“I dedicated a lot of myself to create a new horror mythology and a new monster. I think that monsters and stories about monsters are one of our best ways of getting at deeper truths and facing our fears as a society.”

We all have monsters inside of us, so the fact that they are being portrayed as actual monsters is incredibly interesting, and well, I am looking forward to watching this film in March.