Jordan Peele's "Us": the return of "horror noire"

Jordan Peele's new horror movie, Us, will hit the theatres by the end of the month and once again, Peele is putting black characters in the spotlight

By Marta Michnik

Oscar-winning Lupita Nyong’o will star in the new horror noire, Us. Credit: Flickr/Gage Skidmore

In 2017, Jordan Peele shook the audiences with Get Out, the satirical horror, starring Daniel Kaluuya as the lead.

Brilliant, innovative and terrifying, Get Out won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and got Kaluuya a nomination in the Best Actor category. 

There are many things that make Get Out a treat for horror fans. It's intelligent, with the main character being aware of the horror happening around him.

The key aspect, however, is that the main character is black and, to spice things up, white people are the cause of his nightmare.

The 1968 Night of the Living Dead was the first horror movie to have a black actor, Duane Jones, star as the lead.

Even though after that there were a lot of black actors and actresses playing supporting roles in horror movies, most of them had one unpleasant thing in common – they usually were the first to meet their demise.

With Get Out, Peele gave the black audience the representation they were waiting for and deserved.

Naturally, the expectations are high for Us.

Iria Pizania, a director, producer and a filming partnership officer at Film London says that we can expect Peele's next movie to be as socially relevant and timely as Get Out, with yet another dark twist.

"He will go on with discovering the sources of the racial issues in America and the misconception during the Obama era that with a black president the issues of race are just about solved in the country."

Not much can be figured out from the cryptic trailer for Us, but it is probably like nothing we've seen before.

It stars the Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke as the parents of two kids, who are away on a lovely family holiday, but it quickly turns dark, with the family being stalked by their clones.

Kyle Martellaci, an independent horror films director, says that originality is the key to Peele's success, as it is hard to come by in modern horror. "It's about taking a similar idea and put a spin on it or combining genres," he says. "Peele has absolutely nailed it."

Us premieres on the 22nd of March, so go and find out yourself.