'Us' Is Better Than 'Get Out'

After making a huge splash in his debut as a horror filmmaker with Get Out, Jordan Peele – who first became famous from his comedy work with collaborator Keegan-Michael Key – proves that it isn’t a fluke by delivering another original, solid horror film in Us.  It’s about a family of four (Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, and Evan Alex) whose lake house vacation is terrorized by the sudden appearance of four red-suited intruders – soon revealed to be their doppelgangers.

I enjoyed Us better than Get Out.  While I thought Get Out was good, I also deemed it overrated.  On the other hand, Us totally won me over.  I love how its story evolves as it progresses, and I find its weird twists-and-turns to my liking.  Even at its lowest points, it remains gripping and enjoyable.

Actually, Get Out objectively had a tighter plot than Us.  It’s because Us explores this fascinating concept, but it’s actually not clear and logical about its logistics – significantly challenging one’s readiness to suspend disbelief for the film’s sake.  Thus, the story doesn’t always make sense.  Nevertheless, the combination of focused direction, ingenious editing, phenomenal acting (especially from Lupita Nyong’o), and a refreshingly bizarre premise makes for some thoroughly engaging storytelling.  It also has carefully-placed, clever, nuanced details in its narrative, which you can look back and appreciate once the overall picture is finally revealed.

All in all, Us is a film packed with rivetingly eerie moments and surprises that it’s worth seeing without knowing anything what it’s going to be about.  Its imperfections are evident, yes, but it also thoroughly captures the imagination that they don’t matter.

Us will probably not get the same accolades that Get Out got, but I have a feeling that time will tell that it’s the superior Jordan Peele film.