Us

I can count on one hand how many scary movies I’ve watched in my life. I try to avoid them as much as I can because I do not like being scared. At all. It’s not even about being scared while I’m watching the movie, it’s after, when I go home and can still hear the haunting music *ahem* The Nun. After watching “Us,” however, I didn’t have any creepy music stuck in my head. Though, I admit that I absolutely cannot listen to the remix of “I Got 5 On It” without losing my mind. Nope. It gives me chills all on its own, no need for the movie. But there is something about the track that holds such a creepiness that you just can’t simulate when you hear it in your head. I actually heard that song months before I watched the movie a week ago. I do believe it would have been a better movie-watching experience if I had gone to the theater when it came out. Shoulda coulda woulda.

This film is centered around a nuclear black family. Jordan Peele, the director of both “Us” and "Get Out," one of the highest-grossing films of 2017, has said multiple times that he doesn’t see himself casting a white lead in any of his films. He has the freedom to cast whomever he wants due to his already present success in the entertainment industry and he knows he wants to represent people of color, specifically casting black lead characters. I think this is awesome because there are already an infinite amount of films with a lead cast full of only white people. He is only doing what other directors have done with white characters. Of course, “Us” still has white characters. Jordan Peele hasn’t absolutely shunned white people—they’re just supporting cast.

Like many horror films, the movie does lack proper representation for people with disabilities, however. Lupita Nyong’o was faced with backlash after saying that the creepy voice she uses for her tethered character was inspired by spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes muscle spasms in the voice box. Of course, this was said in an interview outside the movie, but it affected people’s perceptions of the film. The problem with saying this is the fact that the voice she uses in “Us” is scary. That’s the whole purpose of the movie. People who actually have spasmodic dysphonia, however, don’t want people’s perceptions of them to be negative. Obviously. Lupita Nyong’o later apologized, but this is still a huge problem in other horror films. The actors in these movies turn to people with disabilities for inspiration to develop a character but don’t do anything to actually represent them in a positive way. Doing this only reinforces the stigma against disabled people, making them seem disturbed or threatening. It’s absolutely possible to portray these conditions in a positive light, as it has been done in movies like “Quiet Place,” “Bird Box,” and “Hush.”