Well-crafted, with the odd "beginner's mistake" or two

Rating: 6/10 (24 March 2019)

It'll be fun to see what becomes of MadTV alumni and horror newbie Jordan Peele. His 2017 directorial debut Get Out had some problems but it still mixed paranoia-inducing horror with satirical comedy rather well, and for a first outing, 'tis really quite something. Among other things, he's doing a new Twilight Zone series which I will want to see.
Now comes Us, his movie about a black family that goes on vacation only to find themselves terrorized by, well, themselves. The core premise and early parts of the movie show potential; what Peele clearly excels at is crafting an atmosphere through visuals, audio, camera work, and music. However, some would say this one ends on a note of nonsense and a revelation that should not have been made. I can see it.
It all began when Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) was a child, wandering into a hall of mirrors on a summer night at Santa Cruz Beach and seeing herself in what certainly wasn't a normal reflection. Having gotten over (?) the trauma of this outlandish encounter, she is now married to the goofy Gabe (Winston Duke) and a mother to Zora and Jason (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex). The acting all-around is skillful, excluding a few moments where the actors seemed to miss the shift from comedy to horror. Not that I could always tell either.
The family is traveling to Adelaide's childhood domicile, now functioning as their summer home. And alas, after another strange event at the beach of Santa Cruz, familiar faces attack Adelaide's home. Indeed, the family is faced by their own doppelg채ngers - their "tethered" selves, which are connected to them in some convoluted way that goes beyond physical resemblance. I'm not sure I got all the details.
Other doppelg채ngers start to appear, including those of neighbor Josh (Tim Heidecker), his wife Kitty (Elisabeth Moss) and their twin daughters. I don't know why these particular doppelg채ngers seem more ruthless toward their real-world counterparts than those of Adelaide and her family. Maybe it's because Josh and his family were already kinda jerks themselves. Maybe it's because of what's revealed in the twist: the true connection between Adelaide and Red - her double - which shows that Red's motive is more vengeful. I actually knew the twist going in. So far as I could tell, the beginning of the movie works a bit better without the recontextualization. Mostly.
It also would have been fine if the movie told us nothing of what these creatures are, outside of the connection between, at the least, the heroine and her double. As it is, the movie explains a little too much, which results in it not explaining ENOUGH. When a movie like this starts telling us some of the rules, we start wondering about other rules (when we're forced to think about what happens literally in the film, we may not appreciate its metaphors and themes). In this case we might wonder why some doppelg채ngers can seemingly exit their realm freely if they are also "trapped".
While these details won't ruin the experience for everyone - especially as Peele gets the scary tone down where it counts, skillfully making mundane objects and places seem ominous, and does fine with the humor - there are still a few beginner's mistakes. The dialogue isn't as believable as it could have been and many of the "Chekov's Gun" set-ups are pretty blatant, though there were a few bits of reincorporation I failed to foretell from Peele's clues. (NEAT DETAIL: One "Chekov's Gun" is Gabe's boat, which tends to malfunction in a such a way that you "need" to pound the outboard motor on its left side. When Gabe's mirror-self ends up in the same situation, he starts hammering it on the wrong side.)
Most importantly, perhaps, is that Us is more interesting and eerily thought-inspiring than most other horror movies being made these days. Definitely go see it either way (even if it gives you mirror-phobia).