“Us”

This post contains my personal opinion which includes spoilers. Proceed with caution!

I’ve loved horror films ever since I was kid. Franchises like Chucky, Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream will always have a special place in my heart no matter how old I get. However, classics like those mean that I’m pretty critical of what makes a good horror film these days. Most films add loud music and random pop-us and call it a horror film, but thankfully “Us” wasn’t one of those films.

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Jordan Peele’s second round under the spotlight. With Lupita
Nyong’o and Winston Duke as the lead characters, Peele gives us a chance to see our melinated cousins go toe to toe with their doppelgangers.

“Us” starts off with Adelaide as a little girl celebrating her birthday with her parents at the local carnival. After a terrifying run-in with a more terrifying version of herself Adelaide returns home different than how she was. We fast forward to see an adult Adelaide with her family who travel up to their family lake house for vacation. Lupita’s character Adelaide Wilson takes the spotlight after her family is faced with their own doppelganger selves also known as the “tethered”. Each of the “tethered” takes on an eerie characteristic that has you wondering what must’ve been going on in Peele’s head when he created them. While Gabe Wilson is the first to start the victory over the “tethered”, Adelaide Wilson is the one that brings the film to a close with a face to face battle with herself also referred to as Red. Little do we know that the Adelaide that we’ve been rooting for was in fact the original doppelganger girl from the beginning.

With a simple Google search, you can easily figure out that this movie isn’t particularly straightforward. There are tons of videos with various conspiracy theories and Easter eggs galore. Which one reason I truly enjoyed the film. Peele’s movies force his audience to truly think about the possibilities and the realities hidden within it.

When I walked out of the theater, I felt torn. While I was personally fine with the fact that the Adelaide that I was rooting for was in fact an evil little girl that had completely ruined the life of another little girl, I was starting to feel bad for the “tethered” version of her. Echos of the final scene twisted through my brain and I truly started to feel bad for Red’s character. She was trapped withing the confines of “tethered” system for years. I started to imagine how difficult it must have been to cope with these strange beings beneath the surface without true affection or love after truly living carefree as a little girl. All of these emotions made me realize that I wasn’t as fine as I originally thought.

Now I’m thinking that the ending was pretty messed up. But then my over-analytical brain kicked into gear and now there’s a full on analysis going down.

Adelaide and Red both had their faults in this film. Based on how Red was portrayed as a child, it was hard for me to truly connect to her. I mean she wandered off after she was specifically told to stay with her dad (who was an idiot by the way). And then even when we see her chained to the based of the facility, she doesn’t even try to talk the girl into letting her go. She just sits there.

And then young Adelaide gives off vibes of pure maliciousness and evil in the beginning and even shows glimpses of it as an adult. It makes you wonder if she was truly able to assimilate into the world above ground. But then we see her love and affection for her husband and her kids and I have no choice but to accept that Red’s death was the only way to end the film.

However, I can’t lie and say I wouldn’t have absolutely loved to see Red walk out as the victor in Adelaide’s clothes and completely slide into the role that should have been her’s to begin with.

Overall, if you’re looking for a cut and dry horror film with a predictable ending, then maybe try something else. If you want to sit in your car and question who you are as a moral being and whether you would have done the same, then by all means, join the rest of us.