As mentioned in my review, Us is an engrossing, atmospheric and utterly terrifying piece of pure cinema. While Jordan Peele’s first feature film, Get Out was more of a psychological thriller, here, he plants his feet firmly in the realm of pure horror. What I love about the film is that it works almost flawlessly on two separate levels, both as an entertaining and scary home invasion picture and also as a deeper sociopolitical commentary.
There’s no denying that the film consists of plenty of underlying subtexts and metaphors. And if you’ve watched the movie you probably would have a lot of interpretations and burning questions. In an interview with Empire Podcast, Jordan Peele discusses what he had in mind while making the movie.
“This movie’s about maybe the monster is you. It’s about us, looking at ourselves as individuals and as a group. The protagonist in the movie is the surrogate for the audience, so it felt like at the end of the day, I wasn’t doing my core theme any justice if I wasn’t revealing that we have been the bad guy in this movie.
We’ve been following the villain. I say villain lightly because I think there are many experiences of the film, and I think a lot of people go through a question of what is good and evil? Does that even exist? Both characters are lovable and terrifying, based on the lives they’ve led they’ve just sort of inverted the paths.”
On top of that, Peele also mentions that Us is about opportunities and love and how it can affect one’s life.
“I think one of the questions that’s raised is ‘privilege’, and the neglect that sort of presumption of deserved privilege requires. And when people are on the other side of it, when people have received the rough end of the nurture argument, and they rebel or act in violence or commit crimes on that side, is that evil or is that circumstance?”
One thing that had a lot of us wondering as we walked out of cinemas was what exactly the ending meant for the Wilson family. Does little Jason know that his mom is a tethered? If so, what does it mean? Here’s what Peele said:
“Adelaide and Jason sharing that moment at the end, I’m purposefully leaving it a bit vague as to what exactly he knows or how far he’s come in figuring out what, if anything, he’s figured out. I think the little smile she gives him is a lot of things. I think it’s a connection to the evil smile she once had as a little girl, but also a sort of understanding that her family unit was stronger from this experience.”
Peele’s conversation on Empire Podcast definitely helps to put things into perspective. Us is easily one of, if not the best film of 2019 so far. An absolutely unmissable theatrical experience that is just as entertaining as it is absolutely thought-provoking.
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