SXSW Kicks Off With Jordan Peele’s ‘Us,’ And Early Reactions Evoke Comparisons To Spielberg And Kubrick
Jordan Peele’s follow up to Get Out is the immensely eerie Us. The film releases on March 22, but already has had the honor of kick-starting the South By Southwest film festival, and the reactions are absolutely overwhelming. The festival goers enjoyed the film so much that comparisons between Peele and Hitchcock, Spielberg, and Kubrick became the norm from many of the tweets being sent out within hours of the screening.
Peele’s debut feature film was Get Out, which ended up winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The film was a cultural revolution with its statement on the racial climate within the United States, as well as its horror motif. After two years, Peele is following up that success with Us, a movie that has been gaining momentum since the trailer reveal, with its all-star cast and intense premise. The film is so anticipated that it opened at SXSW 2019 and the accolades have been coming in from the press and early audiences who were able to see the film. Gizmodo rounds up most of the social media reactions, and it’s safe to say that Us may be as big, if not a bigger hit than Get Out.
Jordan Peele's "Us" is a horror masterpiece. We are witnessing the birth of our modern day Hitchcock. 20 years from now we will ask one another what our favorite Peele film is & you will get 10/12 different answers. Incredible performance from Lupita Nyong'o! #UsMovie #UsFirst pic.twitter.com/vvHunYqSxd
— Clayton Davis (@ByClaytonDavis) March 9, 2019
Us features a father (Winston Duke) and mother (Lupita Nyong’o) who take their kids for summer vacation to a beach house. Their arrival sees them encounter another family that looks exactly like them, as they fight for survival. The specific plot details of Us has been kept pretty much under wraps, given that this idea alone is garnering so much attention and excitement for the film, that filmmakers don’t need to reveal anything else. The film looks like a worthy successor to Get Out, and is definitely serving the same horror vibes as the first film.
Speaking about Us, Peele discussed what the movie is, and what it definitely is not in an Entertainment Weekly exclusive.
“It’s not about race, about something I feel has become an undeniable truth, and that is a simple fact that we are our own worst enemies. I love films like Poltergeist, I love The Shining, The Amityville Horror and I love Amblin films, those Spielberg films that brought extraordinary situations to a family unit, and even though this movie is not about race, I felt like it was an important piece of the project to have a black family in the center.”
The comparisons to Spielberg and Kubrick seem completely valid now, given that Peele even mentions that his own inspiration came from those filmmakers.
#UsMovie just cemented Jordan Peele as the greatest horror mastermind of the decade. A terrifying, funny, smart, thoughtful movie with a phenomenal cast. Between this and Little Monsters we are living in the year of Lupita Nyong’o!
— Rafael “I'm tired” Motamayor (@RafaelMotamayor) March 9, 2019
Us releases everywhere on March 22.
