Around this time, two years ago, Jordan Peele introduced us to Get Out. Most people hadn't heard of him, and the ones who knew him from Key and Peele were only marginally aware of what was going to go down. The horror film, starring Daniel Kaluuya, was one of 2017's best, getting an Oscar nomination for Best Picture while Jordan Peele won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
But while the movie was great, I have but one gripe with it: Get Out is not a horror film. Sure, there are elements of social horror, I guess, and some of it's generally unsettling, but it's not The Exorcist scary, is it? Well, now Jordan Peele's back, and his latest film, titled Us, is definitely a horror film.
Starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o and Black Panther's Winston Duke, it took me a long time to write this article because I kept having to pause the trailer. Because it was too scary.
Okay. Let's unpack this, shall we? Whereas Get Out had the vague feel of something not being quite right up until Lakeith Stanfield's nosebleed, we get plopped right into the scary stuff, and the pervading image is one of fingerless gloves, holding a pair of gold scissors.
Lovely. I'm never going to hear I Got 5 On It by Luniz in the same way again. At least not with a dry pair of underwear. Let's get into what happens in that trailer. As far as I can tell without looking at the trailer too much, this is about a family who go on holiday, and end up bringing back with them evil doppelgängers who want nothing more than their blood. Bet that's not covered by their travel insurance!
From then on, it's a lot of scary images, tense orchestral cues, and of course, I Got 5 On It playing through the trailer.
Describing it to you, it doesn't sound scary, but there's no way I'm watching that trailer again. But why that particular song, I wonder? Jordan Peele actually explained this in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
"That song, it came pretty simple," Peele explained.
"I’m making a movie in Northern California, that’s a bay area hip-hop classic and I wanted to explore this very relatable journey of being a parent [and] maybe some of the songs you listened to back in the day aren’t appropriate for your kids.
So that was one level, and another part was, I love songs that have a great feeling but also have a haunting element to them and I feel like the beat in that song has this inherent cryptic energy, almost reminiscent of the Nightmare on Elm Street soundtrack."
Well, at least he's having fun with it, eh? If you're a horror fan, then the good news is that Us will be here quite soon; it's expected to hit theatres in March.
The bad news? Good luck getting anybody brave enough to go with you.
