Merry Christmas! Universal has gifted all of us with the trailer for Jordan Peele’s new movie Us. The home invasion thriller has been cloaked in mystery, but last week we got a new synopsis of sorts from EW:
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…
The images alone have been incredibly creepy, but what Peele has done both with his comedy and his horror shows that he’s thinking ten steps ahead with his storytelling. Although “home invasion thriller” might be the logline, Peele has shown he has a lot on his mind with his movies, and I expect Us to be no different.
This is a fantastic trailer in that it actually tells us very little about the film, but still showcases a ton of evocative imagery—which isn't surprising given that Peele worked with It Follows cinematographer Mike Gioulakis on this film. You're drawn in and immediately have questions (Peele answered some of them), but I'm enjoying being in this current state in which nothing is answered, and thus the possibilities are endless.
No doubt there's more on Us's mind than simply scaring audiences, just like Get Out, but Peele has said this film is not about race, so I'm curious to see what themes the film is playing with. Obviously it appears to be drawing on the "you're your own worst enemy" idea, and I'll also be curious to see how similar to film ends up being to the "Rest and Ricklaxation" episode of Rick and Morty. For now, Us remains one of my most anticipated films of 2019 and this trailer only increased my desire to see it ASAP.
Check out the Us trailer below. The film also stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Madison Curry, Cali Sheldon, and Noelle Sheldon. Us opens in theaters on March 15, 2019.
Here's the official synopsis for Us:
After sending shockwaves across contemporary culture and setting a new standard for provocative, socially-conscious horror films with his directorial debut, Get Out, Academy Award®-winning visionary Jordan Peele returns with another original nightmare that he has written, directed and produced.
Set in present day along the iconic Northern California coastline, Us, from Monkeypaw Productions, stars Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Black Panther’s Winston Duke), and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex) for an idyllic summer getaway. Haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past and compounded by a string of eerie coincidences, Adelaide feels her paranoia elevate to high-alert as she grows increasingly certain that something bad is going to befall her family. After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), Adelaide and her family return to their vacation home. When darkness falls, the Wilsons discover the silhouette of four figures holding hands as they stand in the driveway.
Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves. Writer and director Peele produces for his Monkeypaw Productions alongside Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, and Monkeypaw’s Ian Cooper. Us will be released by Universal Pictures on Friday, March 15, 2019.
