Happy Spooky Season!

I have no idea why this film is not on every “Best Horror Movies of the 20th Century” list. As Jordan Peele’s second feature film, following the massive success of “Get Out,” the expectations for “Us” were high. Peele reached and surpassed them all.

Peele is one of my favorite directors. He is the modern master of taking wildly original concepts the extra mile and transforming them into masterpieces, and this film cemented that. He crafts a world adjacent to our own–the characters feel like real people, the situations feel natural and the setting feels like a place we might visit. That is what makes this movie so horrifying.

While “Us” is brilliantly crafted, I do have to give most of the praise to the cast, especially Lupita N’yongo. She exudes star power in a dual role, and there is never a single unintentional moment of blurring the lines between Red and Addie. She gives two separate but equally compelling performances, and her chemistry with all her castmates—especially Winston Duke—makes the film come to life. The use of the physical movement of the actors, embellished by a score that sounds like a nightmare put to music, makes the fear shine. Whether you’re watching a little girl walk through a maze of mirrors or an entire family being slaughtered from a single distanced wide shot, the film bleeds tension. 

This movie took the horror genre to a whole new level. With “Parasite” coming out in the same year and having similar aesthetics, I can understand how “Us” might’ve gotten pushed out of the limelight when it was first released in 2019. But now, we all need to collectively sit down and realize that this is easily one of the Top 100 Best Horror Films of all time. The chilling atmosphere, unique concept, breathtaking acting, subtle yet effective lighting, inventive camerawork and haunting score are perfectly tailored to Jordan Peele’s vision–and it shows. This film is clever and terrifying in equal parts, and it completely reinvigorated the idea that one more twist, one final nugget of backstory, can completely flip a movie on its head.

I hope that Jordan Peele never stops making movies. I hope he continues to stretch his directing muscles and find new ways to experiment, but he will always be at home in the horror genre. It’s a genre that thrives when an artistic eye like his is applied, and I would even go so far as to say I hope there is a whole generation of future filmmakers taking notes from Peele. There are so many things to be learned from the precision and meticulousness of his work, and his sheer attention to detail is a quality of all films–his especially–that I will always adore.