Tanya’s Score: Good-and-a-half*
Rated: 14A
Starring: Maz; Offred
Plot: A family of four fall victim to home-invaders who happen to be their horrifying doppelgängers.
Tanya’s Verdict: From the very beginning, this movie began burrowing its way into my mind with the intense filmography and unsettling music. Jumping from past to present only increased the disturbing tension – something big is about to happen but when and what . . . and what does it all mean? Oh – you’ll find out.
Us is a quirky treasure hunt filled with funny little references to horror movies from days of yore (like Jaws; Friday the 13th; The Shining – to name a few) and symbolic coincidences that may be distracting to some (read: my husband) and utterly delightful to others (read: me).
In my opinion, the big picture arising in Us is comprised in all of its beautiful details carefully scattered throughout. Don’t look too hard; don’t try to make sense of it all – it is, after all, just a horror movie.
Reminiscent of movies like The Invitation (2015) and Funny Games (1997), Us is interesting, compelling and downright disturbing. Another movie that will come back to haunt me years after the fact as I’m waiting for sleep.
*Four score descriptions: Sh**; Okay; Good; Great
I can’t even watch the trailer! Glad you enjoyed it though. I appreciate the review bc I was curious about it and now I know I definitely should not watch it!
I have mixed feelings. A few things didn’t click for me, and I feel like they took me out of the film, so after a certain point I was only observing the movie on a technical level, and admiring it, but not immersed in it enough to enjoy it.
When the ‘Tethered’ people first appear, the comic relief provided by the husband undercuts the suspense. It was hard to adjust, but after a few minutes, I downgraded my expectations from ‘unbearably scary horror’ to ‘enjoyable thriller comedy’.
Red’s voice was creepy enough to pull me back in, and again I adjusted my expectations from ‘scared’ to ‘creeped out’.
This is relevant I think, because apparently Jordan Peele was disappointed by the ‘genre confusion’ of ‘Get Out’, so he jettisoned much of the political commentary, and tried to make a straight up thriller.
*Spoiler*
Unfortunately, what you’re left with is a 1980s-type horror, complete with pop culture references, movie ‘homages’ and a premise that rests on flimsy logic.
Since review headlines have already spoiled the fact that there IS a twist, I spent the whole movie trying to figure out what it was. Needless to say, I did.
It’s still a good movie, but (again), I have downgraded my expectations of Jordan Peele from being the new Hitchcock to the new M. Night Shyamalan.
I just saw this last night on the trending now list in Netflix and the picture itself didn’t make want to click on it . Now I came across your comments and maybe I will give it a go!