Review Transcript

Us is directed by Jordan Peele and stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke, who play a mother and father who take their kids on vacation. This getaway turns into a nightmare when they bump into strangers who look just like them.

Us is a creepishly fun film with a creative premise that goes in a direction you won’t expect. I loved that I did not know what was going to happen and the ending, which I will not spoil, was a bit unsettling and makes you want to check out the film a second time. There’s a lot of information I think someone would learn looking at the movie through the lens of what we learn at the ending.

How does Us stack up against Get Out? I definitely liked Get Out more but the two movies are very different. Us won’t live up to the Oscar-worthy praise that Get Out received but it is an above average horror film that is mostly entertaining to watch.

Through music and an interesting story that feels very original, Jordan Peele masterfully creates a tension filled atmosphere. There’s moments where you’re eyes are transfixed on what you’re watching because you have no clue what is going to unfold. It is a bit creepy to imagine people that look just like you appear and as you begin to find out why they are there and what they want, it is a bit unnerving.

There’s a little bit of comedy that also works in this film because of Winston’s Duke character. His ignorance of these look-alike characters had some laugh-out-loud moments.

My big complaint about Us is there’s about 10-20 minutes of typical running around horror stuff that could’ve been cut out. There’s a sequence for each of the four family members that felt like I had seen it before. It felt like padding and I wanted to the movie to get to the point. If you’re a fan of these horror are-they-going-to-get-them eerie scenes, this may not bother you– but I felt like it dragged for a bit longer than it needed to.

Also, I did like the surprise ending but I am curious how it would’ve played out had we learned about it just a little bit earlier.