A rather novel and compelling horror film by the director who brought us the seminal Get Out, but this follow-up effort I found to have some elements which weren't as effective as I suspect Jordan Peele hoped. Still, it's a movie well worth seeing.
Us follows the story of Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o) and her family - husband and two children, during a vacation trip to the shore. When the Wilson's are set upon by a quartet of eerie strangers, Adelaide is forced to recall some very disturbing memories from her childhood - memories which hint at a far larger, far more sinister and horrifying plot unfolding around them.
Being the spoiler-free section of this review, I can only say so much, so I'll stick to general reactions. I found the concept and overall story arc highly engaging. The great strength of this movie is the grand mystery around the Wilsons' attackers - who are they? Where did they come from? What do they want? The answers are teased out at a fairly satisfying pace, and they leave enough mystery in the end to allow viewers to draw more than a few of their own conclusions about several elements of the story. The other great strength of the film is, not surprisingly, the acting. Any movie headed up by Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke is one that you know is going to wring everything possible out of the script, and Us is no exception.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that this movie felt just a bit flat. I didn't find the tense moments all that tense, and I didn't find several of the expositions nearly as gripping as I've seen in other thriller/horror movies. To be completely honest, I didn't once feel a sense of dread or anxiety in this movie, unlike other recently-seen horror movies like Hereditary or even the same director's own Get Out. There were also a few of the plot elements that didn't seem to completely add up, though I feel that this is somewhat forgivable, considering that Peele was really swinging for the fences with this story.
I may eventually watch this movie again, or at the very least try to seek out a well-written study of its themes and over-arching messages. There is a certain amount to unpack in this film; I'm just not sure that I need to sit through the entire 2 hours one more time to get at the heart of it all.
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