If you haven’t gathered, I have a tenancy to cover blockbusters months after they’ve been released. Hence here I am reviewing a film that came out in the Spring in the Autumn.

This second feature from Get Out director Jordan Peele is a solid horror thriller with its strong characters and engaging plot, although the ending doesn’t make a lot of sense.

With her husband Gabe and their two children, Adelaide Wilson returns to the lake house where she grew up. Their holiday turns into a fight for survival however when four strangers, all of who appear identical to one of them, break into their home.

The Characters

From the very beginning of the film we understand that Adelaide is an anxious woman who is still recovering from a childhood trauma. We don’t know the cause of her trauma until the very end, therefore for most of the film she’s a mysterious character. Whatever her trauma is, we see that it’s made her paranoid and incredibly protective of her children. Her anxiety begins to hamper the holiday, at one point resulting in an embarrassing scene that her friends witness. While her disclosed trauma makes Adelaide a compelling watch, her desire to protect her family makes her very empathetic.

Her husband Gabe offers some good comic relief, more-funny and innocent than that in Get Out. He annoys his wife and children with his bad jokes and enthusiasm for the less-glamorous elements of their holiday (including a small malfunctioning boat). As well as being funny, he presents as a caring but helpless husband as, like the audience, he’s aware of Adelaide’s anxiety but not it’s cause.

All the characters in Us are brilliantly written and as the plot escalates, you’re totally invested in them.

The Plot

In the beginning the plot engages you with the character introductions, particularly Adelaide’s. When the doppelgangers turn up, the plot engages you with action, tension and horror as the doppelgangers chase and torture the family. You’re worried about them. The who and how of the doppelgangers isn’t clear at first but you know that they want nothing but to kill their copies. The plot takes Adelaide’s fear and dances around realizing it. You can’t stop watching. With the rising tension and the growing hints at Adelaide’s past, the plot is incredibly paced and compelling.

If you’ve been browsing the reviews of the film since its release, you may be aware that there’re certain twists towards the end. I won’t reveal them but I will comment on them. If you do some googling and listen to what Peele has to say about Us, you’ll discover that the film’s themes regard Duality and the American Dream and while the ending does express these themes, it does so in a way that makes little sense and will have you scratching your head. It doesn’t ruin the film but it opens up a flew plot holes that you can’t ignore.

Despite the bizarre questions that arise from the ending, Us is certainly a good horror thriller with its fantastic characters and beautifully paced plot. Not one of the greatest but absolutely one of the best, I recommend it.

I give Us a good 8 out of 10.