Jordan Peele’s follow up film to Get Out, US, cements and solidifies his place as the crown prince and once and future king of the horror genre, although his redefinition of that hackneyed pigeon hole frees him from the stereotype.
There are the genre tropes in US but Peele toys with them, plays and teases and subverts. The appeal of Peele is that he forces you to keeps your eyes peeled, even though you may want to shut them, while peeling away at the layers of of the narrative.
There’s the skin of the story, the pith of the paranoia, the flesh of the creeps, the seeds of unease, all with their own textures but part of the whole horror.
On paper, US could be viewed as a zombie film, but even to pigeon-hole it into that sub-genre is a mistake and misnomer. If it s a zombie film, it’s a new zenith.
US begins with a flashback, with a young girl, attracted to a seaside amusement park suffers a traumatic experience in a hall of mirrors.
Flash forward and the girl, Adelaide, is now a woman, married and mother of two, returning to the area where the traumatic incident happened.
The hall of mirrors motif is ratcheted up as the family come in contact with a quartet of home invaders that are a warped reflection of themselves. They are shadows of us, dark shadows, and all of us have them. As a group they are called The Tethered.
There is myriad mystery to US. What has caused The Tethered to become untethered, let loose to unleash lethal terror? US is the subversive worm burrowing its way into the body of society intent upon devouring us from within.
Why are The Tethered in red coverall uniform, and what is the significance of their preferred sidearm, scissors? Scissors cut paper, but scissors also stab. Scissors fashion paper dolls, create silhouettes, sever arteries.
The frisson of fear is palpable in US, potently counterpointed by flashes of humour that are decidedly deadpan, kind of deadly Dad jokes. The absolute kicker of US is the chilled to the core score by Michael Abels with its choral arrangements integrated in primal drum beat, discordant strings and overall eerie ear-worminess.
US is a genuinely arresting film, the cinematic equivalent of the unseen hand on the shoulder. It is the most fiendishly fun film of the year.
