Us (2019)

Us is Jordan Peele's follow up to his hugely successful horror comedy Get Out in 2016. I have to admit that I wasn't too keen on watching another Jordan Peele movie because I think he is generally a rather racist film maker as his films tend to be either biased favourably towards the blacks or laced with political statements as evident in the recently revived Twilight Zone tv series which he produced. But I cannot deny that his films including Us, have garnered some glowing reviews, and plus I do like a good old fashion horror story to wind up the day. So I finally gave Us a watch in my home theatre recently, having avoided it when it was first launched in the cinemas.

First, the good news. Jordan Peele has steered away from making any racial statements unlike the heavily one sided (negative) depiction of whites in Get Out. Nevertheless, old habits die hard, as this mindset is still evident in Us but in a more subtle manner. All the whites that appear in Us are either idiots, or serve only as wall paper characters and props that are killed. The other good news is that Us genuinely has a lot of tense moments and is very cleverly directed to make the audience squeamish. Like many famous directors of the genre (eg Alfred Hitchcock, Brian de Palma, and John Carpenter to name a few), Jordon is beginning to paint his own trademark touches to his suspenseful scenes with some heavily exaggerated closeups, accompanied by an effective use of soundtrack to suit the situation. So we have the contrasting effects of a totally silent soundtrack or the haunting music by Michael Abels, or thunderous beats of hip music. Seldom has music, sound and visuals been so effectively mixed in the genre, making the cliché and mundane seem fresh.

The bad news is that the origin of the horror was never clearly explained at the end, which makes the whole movie feel manipulative. Many questions relating to the why and how the horror started or managed to be hidden, remain unanswered. It also becomes obvious quite early on in the movie (slight spoiler ahead) that none of the family members are going to be killed as they seem to survive the attacks miraculously while lesser characters drop like flies around them. This realization robs the movie of its potential suspense and contributes to a bit of predictability.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy this very much. It has a refreshing style, humour, and did not feel the need to resort to cheap jump scares or disgusting gore to scare the audience. It has regained some level of confidence in me on Jordan Peele's work and I am open to see more of his future works as long as he steers clear of making any racially or politically biased personal statements as his agenda.