Jordan Peele’s New Nightmare Reminds ‘Us' That We Are Our Own Worst Enemies!

Every year, moviegoers are subjected to dozens of horror titles that usually feel like repeats of past classics. It's hard to scare audiences that have already experienced some amazingly terrifying tales. But all hope is not lost as there are several directors out there that are making sure that, when fans want to scare themselves silly, their $15s movie ticket will be well worth the price. Of these aspiring master of horror include the very talented Jordan Peele. Peele shocked audiences with his Academy Award-winning horror powerhouse Get Out, which put him on the map within the genre and made him the first African-American to take home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. 

After Get Out's success, everyone was wondering how the filmmaker would follow-up such an amazing accomplishment, especially since that was his first time in the director's chair. Now Peele has returned with a new nightmare, called Us, that definitely showcases his talent to find new and innovative ways of telling a scary story. 

In Us, a couple, played by Black Panther stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke, take their kids on a vacation to the beach. But once night falls on their little paradise, a family of mysterious silhouettes sits atop their driveway and then attack the unsuspecting family. Turns out, these 4 intruders are identical demonic versions of the vacationers they are haunting and terrorizing throughout the preview. Yup, you read that right, spitting image replicas of themselves that are out to kill them, unless, of course, the family can figure out a way to survive and take out their doppelgangers first. This, along with a disturbing amount of bunnies and some people playing with scissors in all the wrong ways, proves Peele's latest nightmare will again have us sleeping with the lights on for the foreseeable future.

These evil doubles are referred to by the director simply as The Tethered. The Tethered further solidifies the former sketch comedian's ability to kill it in the horror game. Peele successfully takes the old saying of “we are our own worst enemy” and creates a brand new monster out of that idea. He has stated on the record that he has dedicated a lot of himself to create new horror mythology and that Us explores our duality and the duality of the characters within the story. The man behind the movie cites an epic list of inspirations for his latest, all of which he told his leading lady Nyong’o to check out in order to create what he referred to as "a shared language." These films included The Birds, The Shining, Dead Again, Funny Games, The Sixth Sense, A Tale of Two Sisters, Martyrs (2008), Let the Right One In, The Babadook, and It Follows. 

But what is truly mesmerizing is the hypnotic remix of the classic hip-hop track “I Got 5 On It” from Luniz heard throughout the trailer. Peele loves tracks that have a horror element to them, and this one, with the right tweaking, is as addictive as it is terrifying. When the trailer was released, it took the internet by storm, and the reactions that were posted were some of the most hilarious things the internet has ever produced. This did not surprise me because I love this track so much. I have probably watched the trailer 25 times just because I can’t get it out of my head. One could say it haunts my every moment. Man, Jordan Peele is good at what he does. 

Us will terrify audiences when it hits theaters on March 15, 2019.

(Image via Universal Pictures)

- D.J. Rivera, YH Contributing Writer