First of all, what’s it about ? It’s about a family going back to the mother’s previous house in California. They want to have a good time there on holidays, but events will bring to the surface horrific memories to the mother. She knows, like back in the time, something similar is about to happen again.
Speaking about the change of mindset of the mother played by Lupita Nyong’o, let’s begin by remarking the acting. She played in “12 years a slave”, “Black Panther” and in “Star Wars VIII” and is really convincing in the role of someone progressively losing her mind.
“Us” had been directed and written by Jordan Peele. He had only directed “Get Out” 2 years ago before this one. It was already a horror movie, which has shown to be very popular and received pretty good reviews. Spectators liked it because instead of only being gore, Jordan Peele did a movie in which we had to put all the pieces together to understand what was going on. We were trying to figure everything out until the final twist, and that was enjoyable. Consequently, we could have good hope on “Us”.
Indeed, “Us” is still based on the same model, with evidences spread here and there that you can use to understand everything before the end, but it won’t be easy. By the way, it’s amusing to see how Jordan Peele considers very well his spectator on the one hand considering the plot, but still takes time to explain some stupid details on the other hand. In the end, it even offers several possible interpretations. To be honest, the puzzle is clearly more complex than in his previous movie, and we also completely loose the humorous side “Get Out” had.
Therefore, even if the story is also about a black family, this time the subject isn’t about race and discrimination but more about the dark sides of individuals and groups. It’s frankly more centered on the horror aspect while “Get out” was more a thriller.
On the technical side, cinematography was awesome. It’s been shot by Mike Gioulakis who also shot “It follows” back in 2014, also a horror movie. The camera was placed at so many spots on tense scenes to shoot a single one from different point of views that it adds to the feeling of losing control. It’s classic for horror movies, but I loved chosen spots on this one. I also want to note the vivid colors used. It’s overall fairly dark, but they still use bright colors, making the picture high on contrast. As opposed to one previous horror movie released in November, the drab “overlord”. “Us” is definitely more impressive than “Get out”.
