 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 2019 film us so this year I am gonna do spoilers on this though usually for the really new ones I'm I don't do spoilers But I feel like when you really want to talk about this film you have to get in the spoilers because there's a lot to unpack And that's the other thing like I'm kind of like I work through some things before I started Shooting this myself because I literally just finished watching the movie like 15 20 minutes ago So I sat there and thought some things through so I'm gonna have some ideas about themes Kind of like hidden themes within this film and you know might be right might not be right The only way you can really tell is if you hear from the actual filmmaker the writer and director who is Jordan Peele So unless he's done an interview, which I don't know. I haven't looked for it or anything Telling exactly what this film is about exactly what it's supposed to mean thematically and everything What I'm giving is they're just guesses and that's the other thing is this is a type of film where When you see it it kind of begs for you to go to the internet and kind of looked for crowd sourced answers to kind of Get you thinking and be like what does that match up? Does that make sense with this? You know kind of draw your own conclusions after that But I did none of that because I don't like to go into movies or come away from movies immediately and know That stuff especially if I'm gonna do a review on it I want to put all my initial thoughts untainted into the video and then after this video. I might just go For my own satisfaction look and see what some of the theories are out there So everything you're gonna hear on here is just what I came up with while watching the movie and a little bit after So like I said written and directed by Jordan Peele obviously he did the film get out which was right before us and He had also right before I get out was the movie Keanu, which was obviously a comedy. I saw that film I thought it was funny and fun. So it kind of marks like Keanu was was the end of Jordan Peele doing Only comedy stuff and then get out was the beginning of him hitting horror Obviously get out did really well. So then us happened and that did really well, too I wanted to see it in the theater us, but I just didn't make it that happens a lot for me But I guess it didn't need my help because the budget was 20 million dollars and it ended up making 255.1 million dollars at the box office. So gigantic success I have a feeling that studios are gonna be pushing Jordan Peele to continue with making horror films cuz Ching Ching, you know So I did want to say Lupita Nyong'o Is the main actress in this film You would probably know her from Black Panther 12 years a slave the Force Awakens and the last Jedi So prior to this movie she had a lot of pedigree in film. She you know Quite successful already and then the other person you would probably know is Winston Duke who played the husband Gabe was his name in it and her name was Addy in it Winston Duke You probably know him from Black Panther Infinity War and Endgame. So He you know, obviously didn't have as much diversity in film roles as As a Lupita, but he's known like if you've seen the the Marvel movies, you know who this guy is You'll at least be like he looks so familiar. So, yeah And they both did a good job to be honest overall with the acting I thought the acting in this overall was quite good and it's hard because Everyone was obviously playing like two roles You know, you're playing the the the real-life normal person and then you're playing the copy or the doppelganger However, you want to refer to it? I Think doppelgangers are more fun terms. Let me use that one. I might throw a copy in there every now and then so so I remember the trailer for this film and I remember Watching it with my wife Rebecca and she was like After the film I remember or after the trailer I remember being like that trailer looks really good and then she was like that looks terrifying so Kind of shows you our different Perspectives on things and she actually did watch the film with me I don't think she was as scared as she thought she would be with the film But she also she also was kind of like what is going on? This is crazy. Yeah, so So Jordan Pio he had made get out but there was some genre confusion with that So he decided when he was gonna make us apparently that he was gonna be like look This is gonna be horror. There's gonna be straight horror. So there's no confusion about the genre of this. It is horror. So I Think that's obviously been achieved with this So now I'm gonna go through my thoughts that I jotted down as I was watching the film The intro text to this is actually very ominous It's it's kind of like the idea that you have no idea What's lurking right underneath you at any given time because that's the text that kind of said that you know There are all these unused and abandoned subways and tunnels underneath the United States So it kind of starts you with this feeling of like mystery Suspicion because you're like first. How is that gonna come into play in second? Yeah, that's kind of creepy, you know and like I said like you don't know what's lurking beneath Makes you think of the movie chud, but you know So the sign there was a sign that came up Jeremiah 11 11 That that homeless guy was was holding up very early in the film. You see it again So I don't have any biblical background really. I was raised with no religion whatsoever So the majority of any sort of biblical references in this and I believe there are other ones because I recognize Abraham is used and Gabriel is used and I know those are biblical references But you know, I don't really have that that background So I'm sure some of that stuff just right over my head, but I was able to look up what Jeremiah 11 11 is and that was kind of Basically a reference to say the evil is coming and no matter what you do Even if you're asking for for reprieve from it, there's nothing you can do because evil is coming so that's kind of serving as There there's like this trope in horror films where there's always the harbinger, you know The person who's trying to warn people out there. It's usually like a crazy old guy who's just like don't go to that cabin It's you're gonna die. Everyone's gonna die it's been in tons of movies and it was made fun of extensively in the film the cabin in the woods, which I love and Yeah, it's a thing the harbinger. So this guy holding this sign. He is kind of the equivalent of the harbinger for this film There's a comment on Technology that's made in this actually are a few comments on like advances in technology and the impact on kids Because as soon as the the family gets to their like beach house The kids like there's no Wi-Fi and then the dad says Gabe I forget exactly what he said But he said something about like no, you're gonna have to interact with the real world basically So it's kind of showing this this split this dichotomy of you know Kids live in kind of like this fantasy world because it's all about the internet and connectivity versus, you know Ignoring the real life where they're where their parents mainly exist the The son's name is Jason, which I think is probably a reference to Jason Voorhees might be wrong on that But you know just a theory he has a wolf man mask, which obviously is a callback to universal monsters the wolf man Lawn chainie jr. I believe so I know that I read a I read an interview when get out came out in rumorg magazine a bunch of years ago and I remember Jordan Peele talking about how he was big into the universal monster movies so my theory on the wolf man mask the use of it is kind of like You know coming straight from Jordan Peele's heart of like I love the wolf man So I'm gonna have this reference in there. It says cuz you know awesome universal monsters. Let's have that So I think it's cool They did a good job of conveying the anxiety that addy was having when she actually first goes back to the beach after all The crazy stuff happened with her when she was a kid And it the way they set it up. It kind of made it feel like is she Is she kind of mentally ill like it like what's she dealing with is she is she having a lot of anxiety? Is this trauma-based or is she actually mentally ill and you know the nut has cracked basically? They did a really good job of kind of setting that up and shooting it that way and Overall, I think they did a good job of shooting it early on to make you question Her sanity like what's really going on like is she okay? Is what's gonna happen or what is going on in real life or is she just overreacting is she just like Kind of you know off a rocker There's a really cool 300 360 degree shot in this that I really really liked When the doppelganger's first break into the beach house and it's it's showing them coming in and it does like a 360 to Kind of show them all like coming in different entrances to the house. I thought that was good I did note that the movie I felt like actually gets kind of boring when it first starts out with the home invasion I just feel like there's not a whole lot of new stuff going on with that It's just kind of boring Until you get to the point where The second family who were the friends like they have doppelgangers show up and they get killed That's where I think it really the interest level goes up and it becomes way more interesting because It grows the scale of what's going on It makes you feel like it's a more massive issue and that kind of peaks interest a little bit more because when it's just this One family dealing with it. It's it's like an isolated thing and you kind of feel like they can actually either You know kill those doppelgangers or get away from them problem solved But when you then see that there's another family that also has doppelgangers, then you start questioning How bad is this actually? How deep does this go? How far is it is a worldwide in which case you can escape it and now you're trapped and now that it just Ups the stakes a lot more and that's when the real interest level really really kicked in with the film And then I was like, okay. Here we go. It just kind of like ups the terror level with it There's a really great home alone reference in this where the dad gave was just basically like oh, you know Maybe we could stay here and we can like defend ourselves like home alone And they're all like we're not going to defend ourselves with like micro machines I thought that was really funny. And then the kids were basically like what's home alone? I thought and they were like, oh, and the other thing is water micro machines. What's home alone? That's funny the kill count discussion was actually really funny in this when the family goes out and they're gonna get away and they get into the car and They were like, well, I killed this many I killed this one I killed and the dad's like why killed myself and then I killed this one So then he gives out the counties like so you killed this me you killed this me and I thought that was funny I feel like it's a it's a reference to the fact that within the horror community that type of discussion Always comes up like if you go long enough into a horror discussion That kind of comes up of like kill counts and films like how many people as Michael Myers killed to date How many people is Jason for he's killed how many people is Freddy Krueger killed and it is kind of this like who's The best villain thing like who's got that kill count that's higher So I thought that was kind of a reference to that which I thought was kind of funny and cool at the same time When Addy finally goes under that building the one that was initially like the vision quest one and it said, you know learn yourself or whatever Find your true self is that what it said? I don't remember but the one that was a vision quest one and it was called Merlin's quest When she starts going underground in there. It really gave me a feeling like the cabin in the woods when Well, I'm not gonna go too far into it because if people haven't seen that and I will do a review of the cabin in the woods So just know that I don't know when but it'll happen So it just gave me a feeling like cabin in the woods and you'll know why if you've seen it Also when she finally gets underground and she sees you know the facility under there that also made me feel that way I was like I was very much like the cabin in the woods. So I don't know if there was any Inspiration taken from that film or not, but it kind of felt that way to me I really like the reveal at the end of this where you find out that Addie was a copy the whole time And I think and and looking back and I think I would catch a lot more if I watched it a second time And maybe third time but just looking back on the film remembering what I do about it since I just watched it There are some hints to kind of let you know that that was the case that when she was a kid There was a switch there and the doppelganger became her in real life And she became you know took the doppelgangers place underground and the two things that I really see That kind of make that references one the fact that when her doppelganger shows up initially all the doppelgangers cannot talk they can just kind of like yell and Hers can talk though and she's the only one who can talk So that's a that's kind of a little hint and then the other hint is early on when they're on the beach with their friends There she's having a hard time interacting with the other woman and she kind of referenced You know the woman says something about and she's like oh, I'm sorry I find it kind of hard to talk sometimes And that's kind of a reference to her being the copy because the copies couldn't talk But obviously she learned to talk because she was forced into the real world. Well, no She wasn't forced she went out into the real world and then she was raised as a child So she learned to talk then I thought that was interesting the directing and cinematography on this looked really good I think Jordan Pio is very gifted as a director and I hope he just continues I think his writing is good too. He does a really good job with it You know, I don't think this film is unbelievably phenomenal I don't think get out was unbelievably phenomenal, but they're quite good both of them I quite like both of them and I like the fact that he's not a horror filmmaker who puts everything Out there in your face like he writes with underlying themes and and there are there are metaphors and they're you know hidden meanings and I love that type of horror scriptwriter because I Want to find more in these films. I don't want you to just feed, you know spoon feed me I'm not saying that there's necessarily anything wrong with that because I know there are a lot of horror fans Who that's the type of horror they choose to consume? I just personally like the idea of you know, having to do a little bit of work after the fact having extra Thought-provoking things after the film that make me further think and have discussions with people about it So, you know, it's just my personal preference. So I like that about Jordan Pio Already talked about this gotta be tough to play two roles at the same time in this film One thing that I that I picked up on notice that early on in the film. The daughter is actually wearing a white rabbit t-shirt Obviously, we had the scene where you're kind of seeing all those white rabbits cage And I'll kind of talk about a little bit of what I think that might have to do with a little bit later but The daughter I think her name was Zora I want to say she was she had a t-shirt on early on that had a white rabbit on it And then also when the doppelgangers first break into their beach house, there's a white rabbit toy like little stuffed animal toy that Addy cuts the head off of so I thought those were interesting the film isn't I already talked about this the film being intentionally shot to be like Is she having a mental break or what's going on here? This is kind of like genre wise It's like a or subgenre wise. It's a twist on the home invasion film initially, but then it just goes a lot deeper than that So just an observation on that one I assume the scissors in this are actually used to be a symbol of cutting the cord between the real-life person and the copy or doppelganger as they call it the Untethering it's kind of like separating them so they can you know Actually It wouldn't be separating them would be killing them because that's actually what it ends up being because they want to take them over basically take their life What's the deal with Jason being able to control his doppelganger when he puts his mask on was one of my Was one of my questions that I put down But then I answered my own question and I think it's because he's more self-aware So he can control the public him versus a private him So this kind of goes to one of my theories on the overall theme of the film, which is the struggle of being Who you actually are at the heart of you and having a soul basically Versus being at that copy that doppelganger that shell of what society teaches you to be and what society wants you to be and the reason I say that is because When the doppelgangers when you see the environment the doppelgangers were brought up in it's very sterile There's not really much of anything there it's obvious that they are kind of mindless there's even a reference made at some point talking about them being not having a soul and so for that reason It makes me think that The people in the real life have souls The doppelgangers are supposed to be representations of not having souls now. What is in their environment? They have a classroom Which I think is a reference to you are taught things when you come up in school And obviously Education is public. So it's a societal thing. So they teach you society tells you this is what you're supposed to do This is how you're supposed to think this is who you're supposed to be and so that is showing up In the doppelganger area basically saying that you're being taught to not be yourself When you're when you're growing up and that's why it's a classroom there And then also the rabbits in the cages kind of showing that at that point when you're in this classroom Because the cages are in the classroom. You're caged like you're you're captive. You're you're being forced to do this You don't really have a choice at this point You're not making a decision to go to school or not to go to school to learn these things or not learn these things These things are drilled into you against your own will basically and then as you get older It's up to you to figure out who am I actually going to be when you have the struggle of Who's gonna win is it gonna be the soulless doppelganger myself or is it gonna be the inspired creative me who can dance? because that's referenced in this and I just kind of view the film as potentially being on the level of the fight between Who you really are and who society wants you to be and if you go a little bit further and you want to tie that in to You know say some of the themes that also tie in with get out Particularly being harder for people who are African-American where it's a white Driven society that kind of says you know when you're in public we would prefer that you act a certain way and then when you're in private you can be your normal self and You know that's just one of my thoughts on it So so I think going back to the whole thing with Jason and controlling his the other his doppelganger I think he's able to do that at that one point because it's saying that he's self-aware He becomes aware of what's actually going on there and that there are two hymns There's the true hymn and there's the doppelganger hymn and he is so in touch that he knows how to control The doppelganger soulless version of himself. He he has basically become one Mentally and he knows who he actually is so he can control those two things everyone else They're fighting themselves like they're literally fighting themselves. Is it who's gonna win? Is it gonna be the the inspired creative themselves who who are natural? Or is it gonna be the societally constructed soulless versions of themselves that that's what society wants basically So that's one of my ideas on it I also see a lot of tie-in with with trauma and and childhood and having broken homes basically because When you're going into the carnival portion in the beginning where adi gets lost as a child You see that there are problems in the relationship of her parents and they both seem kind of detached Like neither of them really want to deal with her too much, especially the father who's drunk during this and it's showing a lot of Family problems at that point. So I also feel like there's a theme of Potentially a split in personality because of trauma childhood trauma that that is where you kind of have a child Who's being brought up in a happy home and they can just be themselves versus a child who's brought up in a messed up Environment where you know, they're not getting exactly what they need They're not getting the love and affection and attention that they need and therefore they become a different version of themselves this kind of I Don't want to say Sanitized version of self like a stripped-down version of themselves because they've been through some terrible things So it's a whole trauma changing a person and you kind of see that when she she goes in does that vision quest thing and She comes back and she's a different person like she truly is a different person we find out at the very end and The parents go and they go to you know see a psychiatrist or psychologist or something and they're basically like Oh, we just want her to be the way she she used to be well Obviously, there's a split right there and that was a traumatic experience for her getting lost in that mirror maze And it wasn't just because the mirror maze it was because she was left alone Like she was neglected by her parents and that's the actual trauma of it is the neglect from her parents So it's just another another theory that I had. Let me look through and see if I have any more Could also be a commentarity I already got that one Yeah, what back to the whole thing about like the true you versus the societal you The idea of are you going to fight to be yourself or are you not gonna fight to be yourself? Are you just gonna go with it or not? Oh and tying back into that when I was talking about especially for someone who's African-American having the issue of like You know white society telling you you should act a certain way versus being able to be more of yourself when you're not in white society I Think you could see a little bit of that theme in the fact that Addie when she is in the beginning is wearing a lot of white So it's like she's putting on that white front when she is there and then the Doppelganger version, which is actually the true her is wearing a much darker color not white So I don't know maybe reaching maybe just a stupid theory, but you know, it's something that I saw Yeah So it kind of speaks to the last question I had kind of written for myself Be yourself or edit who you are for public consumption. I think that's probably the best way to put it there, but Whoo, okay, that was a lot to go through a lot to think about but that's one of the things I really like about the film Is it really made me think so? Thank you Jordan Peele for doing that Keep on going man, like he'll ever see this. I'm talking like he'll actually watch this He'll never see this but on the off chance that he does like what you're doing keep going So put some comments down there people. I want to hear your theories and there might be a ton of theories What do you think I'm getting right? What do you think I'm getting wrong? What have I not thought about that you have a theory on I don't know But let's talk that out. So I'm gonna give my star rating now So out of five stars with half stars in play. I think I'm gonna go a four I was between like a three and a half and a four But I think because of how much this has made me think and how rich I think the themes kind of are and these Small little hints that play throughout the film that kind of begs for a second watch That makes me want to bump it to that for so I'm gonna give it a four stars. I did enjoy it In comparison to get out. I might have enjoyed it about as much as get out Yeah close maybe a little bit more just because I think it's a little richer on the themes They're kind of buried a little bit more I love these kind of like enigma movies where you kind of got a like twist the Rubik's Cube to decode it You know, so I don't know I like that but anyway Thanks everyone for checking this out do me a quick favor hit that subscribe if you like any videos I do that is the best way to repay me Just you know, you're not giving me any money. So give me that subscribe It literally takes a second is totally painless, but thank you for checking this out Put those comments down there hit that like button if you want But thanks for watching and until next time keep it brutal