Peele's double feature
Review: Us is an iconic horror that doppelgängs up on our innate fears
Movie Review
Director | Jordan Peele | |
Written By | Jordan Peele | |
Starring | Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker | |
Release | 22 MAR (UK) Certificate 15 |
Matt Looker
25th March 2019
Of all the books I read while studying English Literature at university, there are very few that I can say really stuck with me so much that I think about them on a near-daily basis. One that did is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe called William Wilson. If you’re not familiar, it’s a deeply sinister tale in which the narrator describes being tormented throughout his life by infrequent run ins with his doppelgänger, a figure that looks, acts and dresses exactly the same as him, until he is eventually driven mad. The story struck a chord mainly because my professor made a compelling case at the time for how this horror works on a psychological level, but also because he had us analyse the many thematic instances of ‘doubles’ throughout the text. This, he explained, includes William Wilson’s own alliterative initials, which are made up of two 'W's or, rather, 'double-you's. And it was at that point that I thought he was just really reaching.
That there might be an exact duplicate of you, whether by coincidence or by design, is a core-shaking thought, and it’s one that has obviously been put to use in other movies, such as Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy, Richard Ayoade’s The Double and, perhaps most horrifyingly of all, Nancy Meyers’ The Parent Trap. And now Jordan Peele, in presenting a story of a family terrorised by their own exact doubles, doesn’t just tap into that same innate phobia, but breaks down its door and sets it on fire. There’s blood and gore and plenty of laughs along the way, but trembling under the surface of it all is an unnerving chill.
It doesn’t help that, while Duke’s double is more grunting thug than unearthly evil, the children’s respective doppelgängers are vicious animals. Zora’s is a whiplashed psychopath with slicked hair, sunken eyes and a wicked smile, and Jason’s is a ferocious, gimp-masked puppy obsessed with fire. It turns out that those waiting for Peele to skewer another sector of social privilege with cutting subtext are wasting their time, because this film lives, dies and fiercely survives mostly on its characterisation and the cast’s remarkable performances.
As the concept unravels and revelations are made, Peele works to a resolution that is satisfying in providing just enough explanation for the existence of the film’s antagonists while adding extra layers of mythology on top. Either way, this a film that is going to reward repeat viewings like no other as spotting the thematic relevance of particular scenes can easily become a new viewalong experience. From the presence of twins, to characters saying the same words and jinxing each other, to the biblical reference of Jeremiah 11:11, maybe it’s my old English Lit professor’s lessons lingering in my head, but there are a ton of fun instances of doubling in Us. Or should that be 'U's… as in 'you's?
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