Accompanied by her husband, son, and daughter, Adelaide Wilson returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Hesitate to return to the place where a childhood traumatic experience took place. She grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears soon become a reality when the horror she faced as a child is facing her, with her face! The abductor reveals what she wants and it then because clear, the plot synopsis.
So, the story goes, “Once upon a time there was a little girl, who had a shadow, they were tethered together in every way. What the little ate the shadow ate, except when the little girl had a meal it was warm and delicious, while the shadow had the raw flesh of the rabbit, cold and bloody as she tore the meat from the live animal body…….When the little girl fell in love and met her handsome prince, they had happiness, peace, and beautiful kind children. It didn’t matter if the shadow was in love to the man who was going to give her children, he was the shadow to the little girl’s Prince, the children were born cruel, ugly, and abominations.
The spoiler alert is that the shadow kidnapped the little girl when she first came across her in the Santa Cruz mirror fun house and went on to live the life of that little girl while taunting her as she could only experience it via a reflection, as she is now captive in the shadow’s world. Years go by and the captive little girl is hell bent on revenge. The once shadow of the little girl is now good and the real little girl is now demonic.
Hence the title of the film, “Us”. Jeremiah 11:11 “Therefore thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape, and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.”
Since the film is told in sequences and has a lot of flash backs, the ultimate climax to me is the end of the movie. Leaving me with an open-end question with a visual of the 1986 publicity campaign stage from, ‘Hands Across America’. Where is the break in the chain of events, now that the mission has been fulfilled? Is it with the son, who now knows the truth? Is it with ‘Adelaide’? Are more shadows living the lives of their reflections and how will they be stopped and never allowed to come back?
The movie reminded me of, ‘Invasion of the body Snatchers’. Because of the mention of tunnels that have been built over throughout human civilization and early progression with secretive government experiments with cloning.
Jordon Peele did an excellent job of keeping me from going to fun house mirror EVER again in my life. I am also terrified of looking at my reflection to long, unless it is while I am taking a selfie. Lupita Nyong’ O and Elizabeth Moss acting is PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am also eager to see what he does with the ‘Twlight Zone’ how will some of my favorite classics be re-told or will it be all new stories with life questioning challenges?
