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Jordan Peele’s New Spin on ‘Us’ vs. Them
FYI: This is a spoiler-free post.
Having Get Out as your feature film debut must be one hell of a blessing and a curse. On one hand, such an immediate cultural and critical success sets an extremely high bar for any creator, and the pressure must be massive to deliver something else just as effective.
On the other hand, Get Out was such a hit was because it wasn’t the kind of thing that could be replicated. It dropped in a societal sweet spot, timely and genre-smashing just when horror was getting unbearable — a no-fucks-given, audience-winking, social-historical commentary operating on so many levels that it actually blew the field wide open for Jordan Peele. It made sure he could follow it up with whatever he wanted.
Peele declared in November of 2017 that Get Out was a documentary. (If you still haven’t seen it, A.) why?, and B.) you’ll hopefully understand once you watch it.) He took a similar measure last week, clarifying on Twitter that his sophomore film effort, the forebodingly-titled Us, is unequivocally a horror movie.
