Us movie: UK release date, trailer and everything you need to know about the new Jordan Peele film

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Harry Fletcher22 March 2019

The horror event of 2019 is arriving this month, with Jordan Peele’s Us getting its release in cinemas.

The director’s follow up to Get Out — which the Standard named as the best film of the year in 2017 — is set to be one of the must-see movies of the year.

The terrifying first trailer made a big impact with horror fans after being released on Christmas Day. The film had its world premiere at South By Southwest earlier this month, and already has a perfect 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of its opening weekend.

Here’s everything you need to know about the film.

Plot

The movie follows a family heading out on vacation, staying in their summer house by the coast. After spending a little time relaxing with their friends the Tylers, their son is confronted by a strange figure on the beach. This shocks his mother — Lupita Nyong’o’s Adelaide Wilson — who went through a similarly traumatic experience as a child.

Later that night, the family are attacked in their home by a group of sinister figures. They quickly realise that rather than home invaders or criminals, they are being attacked by mirror images of themselves.

“They look exactly like us. They think like us. They know where we are… They won’t stop until they kill us,” Nyong’o’s character says in the trailer.

The rest of the movie sees the family fight to stay alive, constantly stalked by the presence of these figures — their ‘shadow selves’.

Seeing double: Lupita Nyong'o in Us

Production

After Get Out was controversially nominated in the best Music and Comedy category at the 2018 Golden Globes, director Jordan Peele has committed to making the film an outright horror movie. The director also revealed that the film is inspired by the Twilight Zone episode Mirror Image from 1960, which sees a woman confronted by her doppleganger in a bus station late at night.

The notion of the doppleganger — a recognisable trope in gothic literature and traditional horror — is something Peele uses in the film to tackle bigger cultural issues.

“We are our own worst enemy, not just as individuals but more importantly as a group, as a family, as a society, as a country, as a world,” he told the Guardian.

“We are afraid of the shadowy, mysterious ‘other’ that’s gonna come and kill us and take our jobs and do whatever, but what we’re really afraid of is the thing we’re suppressing: our sin, our guilt, our contribution to our own demise.”

Fans can also expect the film to be bigger in scale that Get Out, having been made for five times the $5m (£3.8m) budget of his first film — which went on to gross $255m (£193m).

The biggest films arriving in 2019

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Cast

Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke lead the cast as Adelaide and Gave Wilson — the mother and father of the family featured in the film.

The actors play the heads of the family as well as their ‘shadow selves’, with Peele praising the adaptability and dexterity of their performances.

“Lupita does Ripley [Alien], she does Clarice Starling, and she does Hannibal Lecter [Silence of the Lambs] in one movie. It’s crazy,” Peele told Vanity Fair.

Elsewhere, Elisabeth Moss plays Mrs Tyler, who the Wilsons spend time on vacation with. She also seems to be haunted by a ‘shadow self’ in the trailer, covered in blood and dragging herself on all fours.

Shahadi Wright Joseph — who lends her voice to Young Nala in the upcoming Lion King reboot — plays the Wilson’s daughter Zora Wilson, while their younger son is played by Evan Alex. Madison Curry, meanwhile, plays a younger version of Nyong’o’s Adelaide.

Trailer

The trailer, which has racked up more than 16 million views on YouTube, follows the Wilson family on their drive to the coast, singing along to Luniz’s hip hop classic I Got Five On It. The clip then twists the song, giving it a sinister edge with added orchestral stabs and brooding synths.

After arriving at their destination, we see Winston Duke’s character Gave Wilson surprise his family by buying them a boat. They’re then seen relaxing, enjoying “vodka o’clock”, before their son Jason wanders off and encounters the threatening figure on the beach. “I didn’t know if you were lost. Stick with me and I’ll keep you safe,” his mother tells him.

Later, their home is then taken over by their doppelgangers, all dressed in red jumpsuits and holding large pairs of scissors — their son Jason’s double is also wearing a strange white mask.

The clip shows footage of a mysterious corridor full of rabbits, as well as clips of Elizabeth Moss’s character Mrs Tyler holding a pair of scissors, appearing to stab herself in the ear. We get a glimpse of a chase scene, which sees one of the figures jump onto the roof of a moving car, as well as a brutal attack on a yacht.

Director

Huge talent: Jordan Peele
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Jordan Peele returns with his second feature film after 2017’s Get Out, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Peele produced Us with Jason Blum and Sean McKittrick, who previously worked together on Get Out and BlacKkKlansman.

It’s the most recent project from Peele, who first made his name in the comedy duo Key and Peele, starring alongside Keegan-Michael Key.

As well as Us, the filmmaker is also currently working on a reboot of the Twilight Zone series for CBS, as well as the YouTube’s upcoming sci-fi comedy series Weird City.

Release date

Us is released in cinemas on Friday March 22.

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