2019 horror to beat

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2019)

This second outing for director Jordan Peele has taught me many important thing about this sophomore filmmaker. This man did not get lucky with 'Get Out', he is no one hit wonder. Peele could have easily signed his name onto the list of directors who make one acclaimed film and never recreated that success and followed with several weak films. This is in no means the case. Equally as importantly he is no one trick pony. This is no 'Get Out' repeat. These are two wonderfully different films. Both at polar opposite sides of the genre. I was almost hoping to narrow down Peele's style of filmmaking from this horror, but both outings are gloriously different and completely unique, I am still as clueless as I was before. Peele is swiftly forming himself into a true master of horror and he is here to stay, so if I was you, I would sit back and watch this master at work.
There is a thin line on identifying whether 'Us' is a horror or a thriller, it heavily play into both genres and is a very strategical blend of the both. On one end, the thriller aspects of the film are executed perfectly. The story itself is ingenious, somewhat predictable and unsurprising, but so well written it doesn't matter. The horror aspects are strong, and this is one of the main features that makes this so different to Peele's 2017 hit. Tension is built on superbly, throughout the second and third act it is never dropped. It has the true edge of your seat, nerve shredding tension I so harshly craved from this. One aspect to the horror side of this story I truly adored was the hard slasher vibes littered throughout the second act, it almost felt like a more tense version of 'Scream'. I was in my element.
Having such a reliance of slasher themes did mean the second act did rely on gore factor. The story did take a back seat for a large proportion of these scenes. This benefits the story wildly, by fitting so much in to the story within the first half and hour and the last half and hour, it allowed for a large section for Peele to go full horror on the story, and he goes wild but remains admirably sophisticated.
Relentlessly the cinematography is breath-taking along with wonderful production values. A match made in heaven and undoubtably benefits this watch even further than its exemplary story. The visuals aided the sustained tension, by getting up close and personal with characters really forced the heart pounding pressure on the audience, each and every time you can feel exactly what the characters feel. Each scene is shot beyond perfection and without a question the least critique worthy element to this film. Some shots are highly inventive and the personal feeling that's conveyed due to this is gnarly and really gets under the skin.
Peele provided such richly writer characters and each and every actor in this movie does a faultless job at executed their role. Surprisingly both the younger cast members (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) excel and give two of the best child performances in a horror in the last decade. Duke is wonderful and Moss is wonderful. The latter is unfortunately underused, but her character is perfectly utilised within the story. No matter how much praise is worthy for the other cast members, no one compared to Lupita Nyong'o. A powerhouse of a performance, she shines and glimmers with perfection, one of her two roles transcends despair and the other is nail bitingly intimidating, both roles are played so different, the talents of Nyong'o go undoubted and leaves you with endless desire to see her take on more roles like this. This is easily comparable to Toni Colette's performance in 'Hereditary', but much like that, unfortunately will most likely go unnoticed by all major award ceremonies.
Comparisons to Peele's previous endeavour can't be helped, and on the most part could be the one thing that harms the reception, however, I can firmly state and in full awareness I will be in the minority, 'Us' has the edge over 'Get Out'. With nerve shredding tension, perfectly executed character and a doubtless conformation of the formidable talents of one Jordan Peele, this is the horror film to beat in 2019.