As you all know, I mainly watch and review movies dated in the 1960s to the 2000’s, but my friend and I were recently talking about horror films, and they recommended a film called “US” (2019) by Jordan Peele. While talking about it, I became interested in it, so I watched the trailer. When I first started the trailer, I thought, “Isn’t this a horror movie?” It starts off with a family of four going on a road trip singing and laughing with the song I Got 5 On It by Luniz plays. When the beat switches, so does the scene, and they are now with another family hanging out on the beach, but then, the son Jason goes missing. They change the clip to show where he is, and he is staring at a creepy figure with blood running down his fingers. Now the horror starts to begin, the mom runs towards her kid anxious about what happened or what he saw. Now they are back at the house, but they don’t seem completely safe yet, there's a random group of four standing outside their house, and the family is worried. Hoping they can scare the family away, the dad walks out with a bat saying “If you wanna get crazy, we can get crazy.” But instead of luring the group away, they run towards them, now I can really see why this is a horror film. The random group ends up inside the house, but now they aren’t so random, they are their doppelgangers. Watching that clip sent chills down my spine because not only were they doppelgangers, but they were terrifying. The rest of the trailer goes on to show little snippets of the movie and how the doppelgangers try to kill them.
Once the trailer ended, I was left a little confused. Why did it start off so calmly? I went back and watched it again to pay attention to more of the details. The first thing I noticed is that the overall shade of the film starts with a yellow hue. The first emotion you usually think of when thinking about the color yellow is happiness and while this might be true, the family is happy in the beginning, I'm thinking deeper into this choice of color. Other emotions that are associated with yellow are caution and attention, for example when you see caution tape at a crime scene or in traffic signs. This can be associated with the trailer because the family needs to be cautious of what is about to happen to them. The next scene I noticed something interesting in is right after the mom says “Stick with me, I'll keep you safe” She turns off the light, but she has this sort of menacing look, which leads me to wonder, does she have other motives? Next, there is a scene of a little girl that we don’t see in the family, so that makes me wonder if there is a time skip somewhere in the movie. Another thing I noticed is that these four doppelgangers are wearing red jumpsuits, which signifies danger or anger and could add up to them being more threatening, and the fact that they aren’t exactly alike. The doppelganger for the daughter and the mom seems to have more of a blood-curdling stare and the son only has the top part of his face. Near the end of the trailer, we get to see views of the city and underground, which again makes me wonder, does everyone have a doppelganger, or is it just this family?
Overall, I think this trailer succeeded in achieving its purpose. The change in energy from the beginning of the trailer to the end leads me to believe that this movie has a good plot twist, and who doesn’t love that? The representation Is also good, the way the colors can make a scene have more emotion, and the actors' facial expressions and movements can really lead to a good movie. Before actually watching this, I had no idea who Jordan Peele was. I've heard of him and his films before, but I didn’t know what to expect. Now, I know that his films have unique storytelling visuals. The trailer has multiple parts that make me interested and wanting to watch more, like is there only doppelgangers for that family, or is there more? If there is more, are they just as dangerous, where did these people even come from, or are they even people? I have a lot of questions I want to be answered, so maybe I will watch the movie. I will let you guys know my thoughts after the movie, and if it's one I would recommend to others.
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