“Us” is written and directed by Jordan Peele who is best known for his comedy roles on TV, “Mad TV” & “Reno 911!” & “Key & Peele”. As a writer, he wrote 2016’s “Keanu” as well the surprising smash horror hit of 2017, “Get Out”. After the success of “Get Out”, Peele returns to the director’s chair and puts together a cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph & Evan Alex for this new chapter in the horror genre.

In 1986, Adelaide is wondering through a amusement park with her parents in Santa Cruz, California. She wonders off into a mirror maze, where she makes a shocking discovery of seeing a doppelgänger that looks exactly like her. This experience leaves her in catatonic state, suffering from PTSD. Years later and now an adult Adelaide (Nyong’o) goes to their family lake house with her husband Gabe (Duke), daughter Zora (Joseph) & son Jason (Alex). One night, the family is visited by another family of 4, dressed in red. To Adelaide’s horror, it’s the doppelgänger from her past who also doppelgängers for the rest of her family. These doppelgängers refer to the themselves as “The Tethered” and the begin attacking Adelaide and the family. This struggle between the family and The Tethered carries the remainder of the movie in which each member of the family must outwit their evil counterpart. Adelaide must confront her past while discovering the shocking the truth of The Tethered.

Jordan Peele took the world by surprise with “Get Out” which really was a great film. After dipping his hand in the horror genre, Peele is back for seconds and hits another home run with “Us”. This was a great movie with an even greater performance from Lupita Nyong’o. Her performance as both Adelaide and The Tethered doppelgänger (a.k.a Red) is bother menacing and sympathetic for the individual characters. The remaining cast also give solid performances and have some intense scene with their counterparts. My only with this film is the storyline. There’s no real origin to The Tethered, only motivation and development. They just happen to appear, attack and then move on. We’re told in a few lines between Red & Adelaide about where they come from and that’s it. We don’t see where they come from or how they came to be. We only see them carrying out their plan. Other than that very small detail, this was a great film, great performance, visuals and score. One thing that really stood out to me was that Peele took one of the best rap songs ever in “I Got 5 On It” by The Looniez and remix it into a terrifying score that made for a very creepy trailer.

Overall, this was a great film with a strong performance from the leading lady. Not exactly better than “Get Out” but it is still continuing going in the right direction in the horror genre for Jordan Peele and has me very excited for his remake of “Candyman”. Who knew that guys who have comedy background or who are known for comedy could make great horror films? Jordan Peele with “Get Out” & “Us” or John Krasinski with “A Quiet Place”.