Us' Review: Jordan Peele's Creepy Latest Turns a Funhouse Mirror on Us - The New York Times

  The New York Times

The horror is visceral and affects you — the image of the family’s doppelgängers, the domestic spaces invaded, the uncanny double‑lives.Lupita Nyong’o anchors the film with a deeply committed dual role, making both Adelaide and Red memorable.Peele’s use of symbolism: sets, props (mirrors, scissors, costume), lighting and sound all reinforce the unsettling mood.The film’s thematic reach: class, identity, America’s dualities, how we see ourselves vs others, what we suppress. These are potent.

An “expansive philosophical hall of mirrors” — the film uses the horror / doppelgänger trope to reflect (“mirror”) back at us, forcing us to see what we might prefer to ignore. Pulselive KenyaIt’s not just a straight horror / thriller; there’s a lot of metaphor and symbolism. The evil doubles (the Tethered) are eerie, uncanny versions of the main family (the Wilsons) — looks like them, sounds like

• Lupita Nyong’o’s performance gets special praise — how she handles both Adelaide and her double (Red) is powerful, distinct, and scary. Her control over voice, movement, mannerism is highlighted. Pulselive Kenya

• Visually, the film uses a lot of striking imagery: mirrors, shadows, children, domestic scenes turned horrific, etc. The cinematography, the pacing of scares, the uncanny moments — all effective. Pulselive Kenya

• But the review also notes weaknesses: as the film goes on, the ideas multiply, the symbolism piles up, and some of it gets muddled. It becomes harder to keep all the metaphors clean, and some narrative threads feel less resolved. Pulselive Kenya

Overall: Us is very effective as horror + allegory; creepy, unsettling, ambitious. But it also sometimes strains under its own ambition — too many ideas, too much symbolism, some things not quite explained.