Us (2019)
29/03/19 Filed in: Cinema
This is a tricky film to review without completely spoiling it for anybody who is yet to see it. From the same stable as Get Out, it has that same unnerving quality about it. Fortunately it's squarely within the realms of horror fantasy rather than potential reality, although there are certain aspects that reflect dystopian possibilities.
It's 1986 and a couple are with their daughter at a Santa Cruz fun fare. The dad is behaving more like the child and while left to watch his daughter, he instead becomes completely absorbed by a 'bash-um' game. The daughter, Adelaide, wanders off, entering a hall of mirrors, while outside a storm brews. The power goes off, and while trying to find her way out she comes face to face with a doppelgänger of herself. We next see her reunited with her parents, but all is not well, as she is not speaking and believed to be traumatised.
We now jump forward to the present day and Adelaide is now a mother herself, with a daughter, Zora, and son, Jason. The family is on the road to their summer retreat, where the father, Gabe, has arranged a trip to Santa Cruz, to meet up with friends. But Adelaide is very reluctant to go, her past weighing heavily on her. But Gabe prevails. On the beach, as Adelaide chats with her friend Kitty, Jason wanders off, finding the very same hall of mirrors, and witnessing a strange man standing on the beach nearby. When Jason returns to the family, Adelaide is frantic.
Back at home, Adelaide sees a picture that Jason has drawn depicting the man on the beach, which worries her intensely. Later that evening the power goes off and Jason remarks that there is a family standing outside on the driveway. After first dismissing this, Gabe goes out to ask them what they want. They don't answer and refuse to move, and then it becomes apparent that this family of two parents and two children look remarkably similar to themselves. In fact far too similar!
This is where I'm going to leave you to watch the film, because what unfolds is both disturbing and confusing. It is, of course, all linked back to Adelaide's childhood experience, but concerns far more than this one family. Depending on how astute you are, you might put two and two together and figure out what's going on. But I think most people will need to wait until the end scenes before things start to slot together, and even then there's a good chance you will leave the cinema with more than a few unanswered questions.
One tip, read up on Jeremiah 11.11. A dishevelled man holding a board with this Bible chapter written on it appears in a 1986 scene, and it crops up later. It also underpins what the latter part pf the film is possible trying to tell us.
From the English Standard Version of the Old Testament - Jeremiah 11.11:
Back at home, Adelaide sees a picture that Jason has drawn depicting the man on the beach, which worries her intensely. Later that evening the power goes off and Jason remarks that there is a family standing outside on the driveway. After first dismissing this, Gabe goes out to ask them what they want. They don't answer and refuse to move, and then it becomes apparent that this family of two parents and two children look remarkably similar to themselves. In fact far too similar!
This is where I'm going to leave you to watch the film, because what unfolds is both disturbing and confusing. It is, of course, all linked back to Adelaide's childhood experience, but concerns far more than this one family. Depending on how astute you are, you might put two and two together and figure out what's going on. But I think most people will need to wait until the end scenes before things start to slot together, and even then there's a good chance you will leave the cinema with more than a few unanswered questions.
One tip, read up on Jeremiah 11.11. A dishevelled man holding a board with this Bible chapter written on it appears in a 1986 scene, and it crops up later. It also underpins what the latter part pf the film is possible trying to tell us.
From the English Standard Version of the Old Testament - Jeremiah 11.11:
Therefore, thus says the LORD, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them.