Us ⭐

Jordan Peele’s Us is an effective survival horror film. It’s creepy and tense with excellent action scenes, but also funny with empathetic characters. It also may have a message if you want to go digging for it. All that said, it’s not as engrossing or ground-breaking as Get Out, his previous film.

It’s best to go into the movie cold, so I’ll describe even less than you see in the trailers. A family of four is taking a beach vacation when the mother becomes unsettled by small incidents around her. Soon, the family finds themselves under siege in their rental home by bizarre characters. But this isn’t a straight-up intruders film like Funny Games or The Strangers; there’s more going on. In the lead-up to the film, I saw a lot of speculation on how allegorical the movie was going to be. This isn’t a film like Get Out, where much of the movie was a reflection of the black experience in America. Us plays on some themes that could be unpacked over a couple beers afterwards, but not the direct social commentary of Get Out.

The film starts slowly, with maybe one too many intros before we get to our main family. But then Peele shows confidence by allowing us to just spend time with the family and get to know them and their relationships without constantly prodding us with reminders that something bad is coming. The humor and warmth on display allows us to get through some table-setting where we are introduced to objects and locations we know must be paid off later without it becoming too tedious. When the craziness does start, the movie does know how keep things tense, and it really never takes its foot off the gas from that point forward. Peele knows how to really create some creepy scenes and characters, even though it boils down to creepy voices and odd body movements and monsters popping into frame, which we’ve seen before. The movie just has the craft to do them well. And we do get some good action scenes. These are the types of monsters who bleed, so you get put into that visceral state of rooting for our family to fight back. The small cast is also all very good, even the kids, and especially Lupita Nyong’o , who has to play a wide range compared to the usual horror film heroine. The film also knows the value of interesting, iconic imagery. As this is a Universal Pictures film, I’m already looking forward to seeing it reenacted as part of Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights.

Overall, it’s a film that introduces some new concepts and images, and leaves the audience with a lot to talk over with the lore, but doesn’t necessarily do anything truly mind-blowing with the genre. Still, it’s enough to have a well-crafted horror movie with likable characters and memorable scenes. It may even be preferable for people who felt like The VVitch was too slow and Hereditary was too far off the rails. Check it out – one star!*

*OK, “one star!” sounds snarky. If I’m going to rate films on stars, though, one star is a recommendation. As much fun as Ebert 0-star and AV Club F reviews are to read, I just don’t think it’s as practical to reserve half of a grading scale for films that aren’t any good. So I’m going to rate films on the following scale:

• No stars – Don’t bother
• One star – Recommended. A well-made movie that’s worth a trip to the theater for fans of the genre.
• Two stars – A stand-out film that rises above others of its type. Recommended even for non-fans of the genre, because it may make you a fan.
• Three stars – An exceptional movie that does new things well and should be sought out. Going on a best-of-the-year list.
• Four stars – A great film that should be a Best Picture nominee, even when we only had five nominees.