The incredibly tantalizing first images and plot details from Jordan Peele’s new movie Us have arrived, and they’re gonna make you want to see this film now. This marks Peele’s second feature directorial effort after Get Out, and much like that critically acclaimed film this is described as another “social thriller”—i.e. a horror film with a lot on its mind.

Plot details for Us have been firmly under wraps for a long time, but the film’s cast—led by Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, and Elisabeth Moss—had us mighty intrigued. Now, speaking with EW, Peele is dropping the first story details ahead of the trailer debut on Christmas Day:

“For my second feature, I wanted to create a monster mythology,” Peele tells EW. “I wanted to do something that was more firmly in the horror genre but still held on to my love of movies that are twisted but fun.”

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Image via Universal Pictures

For a further hint, here’s the list of films Peele told Nyong’o to watch so she and he could have a “shared language” during production: Dead AgainThe ShiningThe BabadookIt FollowsA Tale of Two SistersThe BirdsFunny GamesMartyrsLet the Right One In, and The Sixth Sense.

As for the story, previous reports pegged the film as a home invasion thriller. That may kind of be the case, but here’s how EW describes the Us movie plot:

The story is set in the present day and follows Adelaide and Gabe Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke) as they take their kids to Adelaide’s old childhood beachside home in Northern California for the summer. After a day at the beach with the Tyler family (which includes Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker), Adelaide — who’s haunted by a lingering trauma from her past — becomes increasingly more paranoid that something bad will happen to her family. As night falls, the Wilsons see four figures holding hands and standing silently at the bottom of their driveway…

Peele says the monsters in the film are called “the Tethered,” and I am incredibly curious to see where this story goes. Get Out was very much about what it means to be black in America and the myth of a post-racial country following Barack Obama’s presidency. I had an inkling Peele might be tackling issues of misogyny for Us, so we’ll see if that still holds.

Check back on Christmas Day to see the trailer. Us hits theaters on March 15, 2019.

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Image via Universal Pictures

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