By Melissa Antoinette Garza
This review contains SPOILERS! Turn back if you haven’t seen the film.
I love Jordan Peele. I loved the KEY & PEELE (2012) Comedy Central show. I thought KEANU (2016) was hilarious. GET OUT (2017) is one of the greatest horror films in the last 20 years. The only thing as of late that I wasn’t impressed with was the first episode of the new TWILIGHT ZONE (2019) and even that was okay.
For the most part, I had avoided any trailers or reviews for US (2019). I wanted to go in pretty blind and didn’t want to risk anything getting spoiled. I had seen the original teaser which intrigued me enough. Beyond that I saw one crazy dude say that the film proved Jordan Peele hated white people. I hope his wife Chelsea Peretti doesn’t find out or it could make things really awkward at home! For those that are rather thick, that’s a joke. I do not think that Jordan Peele hates Caucasians.
That said, I think Jordan Peele does hate bunnies. I did not like what happened with the bunnies in the flick! I have three at home so I’m a bit of a little bitch when it comes to them on screen. Thankfully, there was only one really awful scene with the rabbits.
The movie opens in 1986. Little Adelaide (Madison Curry) is at a carnival on the beach with her parents who are fighting. Her dad is a bit drunk and her mother is a bit fed up. Adelaide ends up wandering off into a house of mirrors where she sees a girl who looks identical to her but has a maniacal smile. She’s found only 15 minutes later, but it’s clear to see the event has changed her. She’s quiet and scared. She is put into dance class to open up and it works. She never tells anyone what happened there. She does overcome it to an extent in her own way.
In present times, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) has her own family. She’s married to Gabe (Winston Duke) and has two children. The youngest, Jason (Evan Alex) is into magic and masks and old school horror movies like JAWS. His slightly older sister Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) is focused on her phone, trying to convince her parents to let her drive and is a tough fighter through and through.
On vacation at the same beach she had been at as a child, Adelaide starts noticing odd coincidences. She sees a random vagabond that had been there in 1986 being taken away, dead on a stretcher. In his hand, he was still clutching the same sign he had all those years ago. Written on it was just ‘Jeremiah 11:11.’ When I returned home, I checked to see what that Biblical quote was and it reads the following:
Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will.
The number 11 being shown twice is a theme throughout the film and the quote does make sense not only in the context of the film, but also with the perceived antagonist’s mindset as she believes God brought the meeting together.
The meeting itself happens after Adelaide tells Gabe she wants to leave the beach. Earlier in the day they went to the beach with some friends and weird shit went down. She tells her husband that she feels as though that little girl from all those years ago is now coming back for her. At that moment the electricity goes out. Adelaide rightfully panics, Gabe doesn’t. He doesn’t even get that scared when he notices a family of four all in red standing at the edge of his driveway holding hands.
Adelaide immediately grabs her children and holds them close. She calls the police who claim to be 20 minutes away. By this time the strange group has infiltrated the house and Gabe now knows that they mean to do harm.
Things get worse when the group of four reveal themselves to be exact counterparts to the family. They look like clones. They can’t talk. Adelaide’s double Red can speak a bit in a gruff tone, but the rest communicate via sounds, expression and movement.
Red explains that the four of them are tethered together and that they are like the shadows. In tunnels below the United States, scientists found a way to make a double of each person. The clones share blood, DNA and an identical body, but they are soulless. They are fed live rabbits (unnecessary Jordan Peele!) and given sharp toys that they cut themselves with. The point, Red explains is to force people to do what the scientists want. Whatever the “real” people do, the shadows or clones copy from inside the facility.
Soon, all the clones escape and attempt to kill their counterparts while joining hands together above ground. The family unites and fights hard against the aggressors. Zora protects Jason and vise-versa, even though earlier in the day the two were bickering and picking on each other. They go into sibling protection mode as soon as things get crazy.
This is where I’m going to delve into some REAL spoilers. In the end we find out that Adelaide is actually the clone and switched places with the real Adelaide back in 1986. The real Adelaide was raised in the facility which is why she’s the only one who has any type of communication ability. The only reason it’s gruff is because the fake Adelaide had fucked her up as a child damaging her voice. I have a few questions about this revelation.
First, why did Red (Real Adelaide/Facility Raised Adelaide) tell Fake Adelaide “You could have taken me with you” if she knew she was the Real Adelaide. There was nowhere to “go with.” Fake Adelaide had a plan. She purposely choked Real Adelaide out to jump in the car with mommy and daddy and live a great life. That line indicates to me that Red didn’t know she was Adelaide, but she had to know.
It’s possible she was young enough to forget, but she kept talking about how different she was from the rest of the clones and how they turned to her like a Messiah to help free them. I just don’t know whether both women knew who they were the whole time or if some details were lost to memory and only came back after the ordeal. It seems as though the film points to both at times. Sometimes it seems like they both DEFINITELY knew and then sometimes it seems that they didn’t – especially Fake Adelaide.
Fake Adelaide is a mystery! Without question she LOVES her family. She will die for her family. She will kill for her family. She also definitely has a soul and a heart. She cares more about the clones, even as she kills them, than anyone else. Possibly because she knows she’s one of them and understands their plight.
I just don’t understand why she risks going back? She goes back every year. Gabe mentions how they went there the year before. If you know the facility is right underneath and that a girl you handcuffed to a bed and switched places with is living there, why return? Vacation somewhere else!
Also when the kids ask how many clones are there, a light-bulb goes off for her. They put the news on to find out how widespread it is. She seems genuinely surprised by all of it. Why if she knew was she so surprised? In fact, with few exceptions (mainly when the family first shows up) she really seems shocked by it all.
Initially, I thought maybe the girls had switched places, but the movie really does back-flips to convince you that’s not the case. Some are extremely clever, like the voice issue that Real Adelaide has. One assumes it’s because she’s a duplicate. Instead, it’s because she isn’t a clone, but had her voice-box damaged. Little Adelaide being unable to speak when she returned from the fun house was a good touch as well. People assume it was the PTSD, but it was because she never learned or was taught how to talk. In those situations, Peele is a fucking genius!
Overall, the movie is fantastic. The pace is fabulous. The tension and intrigue is perfect. The entire cast is brilliant.
Speaking of the cast, their performances are more than rock solid. The child actors were fabulous. Typically, I have issues with children actors and I’m not shy about criticizing them. I give allowances, but I’m honest. Here, all three main children (Curry, Joseph and Alex) brought their A Game. As their REAL characters, they had to act like the average kid to make it believable. Sometimes they were sweet and sometimes they weren’t. Sometimes they got on their parents nerves and at all times it was realistic and natural. As the duplicates they had to convey creepiness and they did it. They made certain the contrast between the clones and originals was evident and clear to see.
Duke is wonderful as Gabe/Abraham. When Gabe, he’s the understanding, dutiful husband who wants to have fun. He’s goofy and does stupid impulsive things like buying an ugly boat, but he’s fun and has a great personality. He also tries to be tough when shit gets scary. His attempts at keeping a level head and then freaking out are all done in a way that brings the viewer in completely. I loved his character.
As Abraham, he was all brawn. He was fierce and in charge and scary AF. The Gabe vs Abraham scenes are made all the more compelling by the fact that they’re played by the same dude.
That said, no one quite did as well as Nyong’o. She delivers from moment one. I was totally sold on her character. When Adelaide begins to get really nervous and tells Gabe about the childhood switch, I feel for her. I’m totally on her side. She sold every struggle and success Adelaide went thru. Whether as the real or fake, she was able to captivate and keep the audience’s attention. I can’t say enough good things about her acting.
From beginning to end, I was hooked.
I do wish I knew a little more about the facility and its purpose. Why did they want to control these people? What did the experiment hope to accomplish? Who was conducting it? How many people had these duplicates? I know. I know. I can hear you now. “You don’t need to know everything! Ambiguity is good.” Yes. Yes, it is! In films like CUBE (1997), I far prefer not knowing than the explanation we were given with the sequels, so I get it. Still, I’d like to know a bit of the “WHY??” I don’t need to know everything. A government folder with a name like MK-ULTRA EXPANSION would have been enough for me to be like, “oh okay, it’s CIA stuff…carry on Mr. Peele!”
Still, the film delivers on all major fronts. I highly suggest this as a theater watch. I loved it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8/10
