‘Us’: Jordan Peele’s Unnerving Tale of Seaside Terror, Menacing Doubles and Buried American Guilt

Us (2019) is a bold and unconventional horror film starring Lupita Nyong'o as Adelaide Wilson, a woman haunted by a childhood encounter in a seaside funhouse. Returning years later to the same Santa Cruz beach community with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and children, Adelaide begins to experience a long-buried sense of foreboding. Compelled to draw her family close, she's unable to shake the feeling that someone or something is about to step out of the darkness.

Adelaide's worst fears are realized when four mysterious figures appear in her driveway that night, forcing the family into a terrifying struggle for survival. Adelaide soon finds herself face-to-face with a ghastly, rasping double of her own likeness—an intrusion she meets with terror and stubborn resolve. The storyline tracks the Wilsons as they both battle and flee their doubles, while learning that similar attacks are unfolding across the country. The narrative encircles Adelaide as memories of that night in the funhouse return—the possibility growing that the life she has built may not be her own.

Written and directed by Jordan Peele (Get Out, Nope), Us is a tense horror story built on a home invasion premise that develops into something far more macabre. Nyong'o is extraordinary in a dual role demanding control, vulnerability and menace in varying measure—her physical presence and fractured vocal work wholly convincing despite the twist built into her character. A 2019 commercial and critical hit, Peele's film serves as an unnerving portrait of buried American guilt and the unseen lives propping up others' sense of security and safety.

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