“It’s us…” is the pulsing phrase found in trailers of Jordan Peele’s new horror movie: “Us”.  The movie was originally planned to debut on Mar. 15, but premiered in theaters on Mar. 22. “Us” is the second film directed, produced and written by Peele after the success of “Get Out” (2017).  Movie critics and horror fans were looking at “Us” with expectations and favor as early ratings flooded the internet days before its release.

Peele has shown success in his career going from actor to comedian and most recently, screenwriter and director.  Although many questioned his interest in filmmaking, he has proven his abilities after the success of his first movie.  Shortly after “Get Out,” he stated how he wishes to create four social thriller movies reminiscent of “Get Out” with “Us” being one of them.

Valery Salas, 12, is attracted to movies about the spiritual and supernatural which is why she went out to see “Us”.  Even though horror is not one of her favorite movie genres, Salas thought highly of the movie.

“I think ‘Us’ is an improvement compared to other movies because it was a lot more suspenseful and not a typical horror movie,” Salas said.  “I think he did this [make the monsters doppelgangers] because in the end everyone is more afraid of themselves than any other figure or imagination since you can’t escape your own self.”

“Us” presents a family taking a summer vacation to their house by Santa Cruz Beach.  As they arrive, weird coincidences start aligning around the family. The family is shortly attacked by what appears to be a series of their exact doubles who are explicitly out to kill them throughout the movie.  

Fan of Jordan Peele’s work on “Get Out,” senior Christopher Aguiniga hopes to go watch the movie while it is in theaters.  He appreciates the mixture of comedy and horror Peele is able to create in his films.

“At first I believed it was going to be a family movie from the first few scenes but when the tone changed it proved to have an eerie vibe to it,” Aguiniga said.  “The movie began to spark more of an interest when the tethered got involved and they’re understood because I felt it revolved around the idea of your inner self or your alternate-self, but saw some similarities between both the real person and the other.”

Throughout the film, scenes often foreshadowed events in the movie.  Although frightening in a myriad of scenes, Peele splashed his humor amongst the entirety of the movie.  His previous movie, “Get Out”, had a message about race and this movie was no different as he tried to invoke feelings about society’s structure.  In his attempts to construct his message through humor and horror, Peele included twists and turns for more keen-eyed viewers to ponder and decipher as the movie progressed.

Senior Jesse Sanson went out to view the movie on the Friday of its release at the local Studio Movie Grill by Downey High School.  He looked into the more complex aspects of the film and liked what he saw.

“I felt like there was a lot of thought behind it and that it was a very creative movie,” Sanson said.  “Although I didn’t feel very scared, I am not sure if that is because the movie didn’t do a good job or my personal fears.  Altogether I felt like it was a well-constructed story. It was to show how our inner villain, ‘us’, can be one of the scariest things rather than an external force, it’s more internal.”

Overall, the movie appeared to have a strong sense for what it wanted to do and how it wanted the viewer to feel.  Where Peele wanted to scare the daylights out of the audience, he would and where he desired less tension, he would make a scene comedic.  “Us” was well done with creative/unique storytelling that separates it apart from most films in the horror genre.