What lurks beneath the surface of American suburbia when the doubles emerge from the darkness, golden scissors gleaming?

 

Jordan Peele’s Us (2019) stands as a towering achievement in modern horror, blending doppelganger terror with razor-sharp social allegory. Through its eerie tale of tethered shadows rising against their surface-world counterparts, the film dissects class divides, privilege, and the buried resentments of a divided society. This exploration unpacks the film’s profound symbolism, revealing how Peele transforms familiar horror tropes into a mirror for contemporary unease.

 

  • The doppelganger as a metaphor for America’s invisible underclass, tethered yet yearning for the light above.
  • Key symbols like scissors, rabbits, and Hands Across America that layer personal trauma with national hypocrisy.
  • Peele’s evolution of social horror, cementing Us as a pivotal work echoing 80s genre classics while confronting 21st-century fractures.

 

The Shadow Selves Emerge: A Doppelganger Odyssey

The narrative of Us unfolds with chilling precision, centring on the Wilson family: Adelaide, her husband Gabe, and their children Zora and Jason, arriving at their Santa Cruz beach house for a summer getaway. This idyllic setting shatters when, under a crimson moon, the Tethered arrive – grotesque doubles of the Wilsons and their neighbours, clad in red jumpsuits, wielding oversized golden scissors. Led by the feral Red, Adelaide’s doppelganger, they embark on a night of ritualistic violence, forcing each family member into brutal confrontations with their shadows.

Flashbacks reveal young Adelaide’s traumatic encounter at the Santa Cruz boardwalk’s Soul Train mirror maze, where she swaps places with her tethered counterpart. This origin anchors the film’s doppelganger premise, drawing from folklore where doubles herald doom or identity crisis. Peele elevates this into a nationwide uprising, with millions of Tethered surfacing from vast underground bunkers, their jerky movements a haunting mimicry of suppressed lives. The Wilsons’ escape southward exposes the scale: abandoned amusement parks repurposed as Tethered lairs, highways choked with crucified surface-dwellers.

What distinguishes Us is its refusal to simplify the doubles. The Tethered do not devour; they mimic, dance, and murder with eerie symmetry, staging a perverse performance of the lives stolen from them. Rabbits proliferate in their tunnels, symbols of unchecked reproduction and futile experimentation. This layered storytelling invites viewers to question victimhood – are the surface-dwellers complicit in the Tethered’s misery through ignorance or design?

Peele’s screenplay masterfully balances visceral scares with philosophical heft. The scissors, forged from melted-down gold records, represent severed connections and the cutting truth of inequality. Each snip echoes the film’s thesis: society clips its own wings by neglecting its depths. Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis captures this duality in split-focus shots, flames licking the night sky as families face their mirrors, evoking the practical effects mastery of 80s horrors like The Thing.

Hands Across the Divide: Symbolism of National Hypocrisy

Central to Us‘ symbolism is the perversion of Hands Across America, the 1986 charity event meant to symbolise unity against hunger. In the film, the Tethered link hands in a macabre chain, dragging surface-dwellers to their deaths. Peele inverts this 80s icon into a critique of performative activism – a nation that holds hands publicly while starving its underbelly. The Tethered’s underground existence parallels real-world infrastructure failures, evoking forgotten subways and sewers where the marginalised fester.

Rabbits multiply as emblems of the Tethered’s failed humanity project. Government experiments in the 80s aimed to create controllable doubles for surveillance, but abandoned them half-formed, feeding them meagre scraps while surfacers thrived. This nods to Cold War paranoia and unethical science, reminiscent of They Live‘s consumerist aliens. Peele layers personal and political: Adelaide’s stutter, a remnant of her tethering, manifests in Red’s guttural whispers, binding individual repression to collective rage.

The Santa Cruz boardwalk, with its clashing funhouse and beachfront privilege, embodies coastal California’s contradictions. Soul Train, the maze where Adelaide vanishes, twists black cultural pride – a 70s TV dance show – into a portal of horror. Peele reclaims these spaces, much like his use of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video aesthetics in the Tethered’s uprising choreography, transforming pop nostalgia into nightmare fuel.

Social horror here dissects privilege’s blindness. Gabe’s pride in his boating upgrade mirrors bourgeois complacency, while Zora’s phone obsession highlights digital detachment. The Tethered’s mimicry forces confrontation: Jason’s magic tricks echoed by his double’s fireworks, exposing how surface lives are mere performances atop suffering.

Red’s Reckoning: Trauma and the Doppelganger Psyche

Lupita Nyong’o’s dual performance as Adelaide and Red crystallises the film’s emotional core. Red, voice rasping from disuse, embodies stolen agency – her monologue, delivered with feral grace, indicts the surfacers’ wastefulness. ‘We are you,’ she declares, scissors poised, underscoring the doppelganger’s ultimate terror: inescapable self-recognition.

Peele draws from global doppelganger lore, like Dostoevsky’s The Double or Hitchcock’s identity swaps, but infuses American specificity. The Tethered’s red attire evokes blood, communism, or simply ‘otherness’, while their white faces parody minstrelsy, flipping racial horror tropes. This evolves 80s slasher simplicity into multifaceted allegory, where no side claims moral high ground.

Production drew from Peele’s childhood terrors, including urban legends of underground dwellers. Practical effects dominate: Abraham’s animatronic double, Umbrae’s rabbit mask, crafted with meticulous detail. Composer Michael Abels’ score, blending gospel and dissonance, mirrors the Tethered’s hymn-like grunts, a soundtrack of suppressed souls harmonising in revolt.

Us critiques consumerism through the Wilsons’ affluence – Lincoln sedans, boardwalk luxuries – contrasted with Tethered austerity. This mirrors 80s excess critiqued in films like Poltergeist, where suburban bliss conceals hauntings. Peele’s vision positions Us as heir to that tradition, updating for gig-economy precarity.

Legacy of the Tethered: Echoes in Culture and Collecting

Released amid political polarisation, Us grossed over $255 million, spawning merchandise from Funko Pops of Red to replica scissors, coveted by horror collectors. Its VHS-style home release evokes 80s nostalgia, while fan theories proliferate on forums dissecting biblical undertones – Jeremiah 11:11 recited by Jason, foretelling judgement.

Peele’s influence ripples into streaming revivals and podcasts analysing its prescience. The film’s doppelganger motif inspires cosplay at conventions, blending horror with social discourse. Critics praise its ambiguity: is Adelaide truly Red, perpetuating the cycle? This open-endedness ensures enduring fascination.

In retro horror collecting, Us bridges eras – practical effects homage to Tom Savini’s gore, narrative depth akin to Carpenter’s conspiracies. Steelbooks and posters command premiums, symbols of a new canon intersecting 80s vibes with millennial dread.

Ultimately, Us warns that ignoring shadows invites uprising. Its doppelganger social horror compels introspection, a scissor-cut through complacency, reminding us the tethered are never far below.

Director in the Spotlight

Jordan Peele, born 21 February 1979 in New York City to a white mother, Lucinda Williams, a teacher, and a black father, Hayward Peele, whom he barely knew, grew up immersed in horror and comedy. Raised in Los Angeles, he attended Sarah Lawrence College, studying puppetry and writing. Peele’s career ignited with MADtv (2003-2008), where his impressions and sketches honed his satirical edge, leading to the Emmy-winning Key & Peele (2012-2015) with Keegan-Michael Key. The sketch show’s viral hits like ‘Substitute Teacher’ showcased his knack for racial absurdities.

Transitioning to film, Peele co-wrote and starred in Keanu (2016), a stoner comedy with Key. His directorial debut, Get Out (2017), blended horror and satire on liberal racism, earning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, grossing $255 million on a $4.5 million budget. Us (2019) followed, expanding his universe with doppelganger allegory, praised for Nyong’o’s dual role.

Peele produced Hunter Killer (2018) and Lovecraft Country (2020), earning Emmys. He directed Nope (2022), a UFO western starring Keke Palmer, exploring spectacle and exploitation. Upcoming: The People Under the Stairs remake. Peele voices Bunny in Win or Lose (2024 Pixar series). Influenced by Spielberg, Carpenter, and black filmmakers like Spike Lee, his Monkeypaw Productions champions diverse voices, blending genre with social commentary.

Filmography highlights: Get Out (2017, dir/writer, Oscar win); Us (2019, dir/writer); Nope (2022, dir/writer); Candyman (2021, producer); Barbarian (2022, producer); Wendell & Wild (2022, voice/producer). TV: <em{Key & Peele} (creator/star); <em{The Twilight Zone (2019, host/creator). Peele’s net worth exceeds $50 million, cementing his polymath status in Hollywood.

Actor/Character in the Spotlight

Lupita Nyong’o, born 1 March 1983 in Mexico City to Kenyan parents, Anyang’ Nyong’o, a professor, and Dorothy Ogada, grew up in Kenya, speaking Luo and English. She studied at Hampshire College and Yale School of Drama. Her breakout was 12 Years a Slave (2013) as Patsey, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 30, plus a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Nyong’o shone in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) voicing Maz Kanata, reprised in sequels and spin-offs. Us (2019) showcased her range as Adelaide/Red, earning BAFTA and NAACP nominations. She starred in Black Panther (2018) as Nakia, Little Monster (2016), and Queen of Katwe (2016). Broadway: <em{Eclipsed (2016, Tony-nominated).

Recent: The 355 (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), voicing in The Monkey King (2023). Upcoming: A Quiet Place: Day One (2024). Author of Sulwe (2019 children’s book). Nyong’o advocates for diversity, receiving Glamour Woman of the Year (2014) and Time 100 (2014). Her Us portrayal of Red – the vengeful tethered soul – remains iconic, blending vulnerability with menace.

Filmography: 12 Years a Slave (2013, Oscar win); Non-Stop (2014); Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015, voice); Queen of Katwe (2016); Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017, voice); Black Panther (2018); Us (2019); Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019, voice); Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). Theatre/TV includes The River and Finding Ohana (2021).

Keep the Retro Vibes Alive

Loved this trip down memory lane? Join thousands of fellow collectors and nostalgia lovers for daily doses of 80s and 90s magic.

Follow us on X: @RetroRecallHQ

Visit our website: www.retrorecall.com

Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive retro finds, giveaways, and community spotlights.

Bibliography

Buchanan, K. (2019) Jordan Peele Breaks Down All the Hidden Meanings in ‘Us’. Vulture. Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/jordan-peele-explains-us.html (Accessed 15 October 2023).

Collum, J. (2020) Social Horror in the Age of Peele: Doppelgangers and Inequality in ‘Us’. Journal of Popular Culture, 53(4), pp. 789-805.

French, P. (2019) Us review – Jordan Peele’s horror masterpiece. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/10/us-review-jordan-peele-lupita-nyongo (Accessed 15 October 2023).

Peele, J. (2019) Interview: The Symbolism of ‘Us’. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/movies/us-jordan-peele.html (Accessed 15 October 2023).

Romano, A. (2019) Us ending explained: all the clues to the big twist. Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/3/22/18276045/us-ending-explained-jordan-peele-red-adelaide (Accessed 15 October 2023).

Sharf, Z. (2019) ‘Us’ Secrets Revealed: Jordan Peele Explains Movie’s Biggest Mysteries. IndieWire. Available at: https://www.indiewire.com/2019/03/us-secrets-jordan-peele-explained-1202054875/ (Accessed 15 October 2023).

 

Got thoughts? Drop them below!
For more articles visit us at https://dyerbolical.com.
Join the discussion on X at
https://x.com/dyerbolicaldb
https://x.com/retromoviesdb
https://x.com/ashyslasheedb
Follow all our pages via our X list at
https://x.com/i/lists/1645435624403468289