Film Review: US

Exploring the uncanny and bizarre, as opposed to the realism at the heart of Get Out, Peele offers an epic that allows for multiple readings and interpretations, many (or perhaps all) of which are surely wrong, and refuses to let the audience ever predict what the Hell’s going to happen next. Something which certain viewers are sure to find infuriating.

After an opening subtitle, we pick up in 1986 and watch as young Adelaide Wilson (here played by Madison Curry), a nervous child whose parents worry might be freaked out by a Thriller T-shirt, experiences something frightening on the Santa Cruz Boulevard that will haunt her forever. We then cut to the present day, where the adult Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) travels to a vacation home with her funny husband Gabe (Winston Duke), phone-obsessed teen daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and cluey son Jason (Evan Alex), whose favourite wolfman mask is one of many disguises here.

Hoping for rest and relaxation, Adelaide instead finds herself plagued by uneasiness, and a beach trip to catch up with the boozy, bickering Tylers (Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker as Kitty and Josh) is fraught with strange coincidences and omens. Later that night Jason notices “a family” standing in the shadows of the driveway, and as they break in and wreak havoc, it’s him who first properly realises who they truly are. And yes, what was that title again?

A damn unusual movie in many ways, this is rife with signs and symbols, while also providing a checklist of influences if you want to see them: a Jaws shirt; a hint of The Shining; a clutch of urban legends; a nudge-nudge The Goonies reference; a glimmer of The Twilight Zone, which Peele recently helped update for TV; and more. And pop cultural jokes abound, with the beloved Beach Boys’ classic Good Vibrations brilliantly (if rather sacrilegiously) used during a scene of bloodthirsty mayhem.

Featuring excellent work from the whole cast (but especially Nyong’o, whose look of sheer fear is unforgettable), this has even more hidden layers and subtexts than Get Out, even though they don’t let you put them all together in a comfortingly easy fashion. And is it less concerned with issues of race than Peele’s first film? Some will surely think so – but look closer.

And, ultimately, whereas Get Out was definitely scary, this is terrifying because it’s about the one thing we’re all most afraid of – us.

US (MA) is in cinemas from March 28