Christmas day saw the release of the first trailer for US, Jordan Peele's highly-anticipated follow-up to GET OUT. The sinister trailer introduced us to the Wilson family as they travel along the iconic Northern California coastline on their way to Adelaide Wilson's (Lupita Nyong'o) childhood home for an idyllic summer getaway. Once there, Adelaide, her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their children (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex) come under attack from shadowy figures who are revealed to be their very own doppelgangers.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, US writer/director Jordan Peele spoke about the new trailer and revealed a few details about about the doppelganger monsters who are known as The Tethered. "I think the main idea that went into writing this film is that we’re our own worst enemy, and that idea created this monster, The Tethered. I wanted to forge this new mythology that explored our duality and the duality of the characters," Peele said. "To the actors, I knew this was the ultimate fun because who doesn’t want to play two roles in a movie; when you’re tired in one, you get to jump into the other. But I think what was a fun challenge for actors, was finding the connections between the characters and their counterparts." Take it away, Peele!
Why he decided to use Luniz's "I Got 5 On It":
That song, it came pretty simple, I’m making a movie in Northern California, that’s a bay area hip-hop classic and I wanted to explore this very relatable journey of being a parent [and] maybe some of the songs you listened to back in the day aren’t appropriate for your kids. So that was one level, and another part was, I love songs that have a great feeling but also have a haunting element to them and I feel like the beat in that song has this inherent cryptic energy, almost reminiscent of the Nightmare on Elm Street soundtrack. So those were the ideas that that song hit the bullseye on for me, and also, it’s just a dope track.
On how expansive the chaos will be:
I won’t say how far and all the places this goes to but I definitely wanted to do a movie that started with this sense of invasion, this sense of the fear of other, the fear of the stranger from outside, which I think is a common fear in society these days, and then sort of force the characters to realize the invaders have their faces. I didn’t want to make just a home invasion, though I utilized that imagery. I wanted the sense of an adventure that was not necessarily a claustrophobic one — that’s a feeling that turns me off watching. I wanted to make this expansive, I wanted it to have themes of night and day.
On his ideas for the Wilson family:
I can’t think of a horror movie of this nature with a family in the center of it that uses a black family. So I knew just by putting an African-American family in the lead role, already we would be exploring cinematic uncharted territory – and I apologize if I’m missing something, which I probably am. 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. Get Out was one missing piece of the racial conversation and this is another one and we’re seeing a lot of great strides being taken by great artists like Ava (Duvernay) and Ryan (Coogler).
In order to prepare Lupita Nyong'o for what he had in store for US, and to ensure that they would have a "shared language" while filming, Jordan Peele had Nyong'o watched DEAD AGAIN, THE SHINING, THE BABADOOK, IT FOLLOWS, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, THE BIRDS, FUNNY GAMES, MARTYRS, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, and THE SIXTH SENSE.
The official synopsis for US:
Set in present day along the iconic Northern California coastline, Us, from Monkeypaw Productions, stars Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Black Panther’s Winston Duke), and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex) for an idyllic summer getaway. Haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past and compounded by a string of eerie coincidences, Adelaide feels her paranoia elevate to high-alert as she grows increasingly certain that something bad is going to befall her family. After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), Adelaide and her family return to their vacation home. When darkness falls, the Wilsons discover the silhouette of four figures holding hands as they stand in the driveway. Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.
US cuts into theaters on March 15th, 2019