Us

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Here’s the Hollywood pitch: Take a home invasion movie like “Breaking In,” blend it with “Body Snatchers,” and set the action against a “World War Z” zombie apocalypse background.

That describes “Us,” the new horror film by Jordan Peele.

Keep in mind that Peele is the former comedian who gave us the brilliant 2017 frightfest “Get Out.” And soon he will be hosting the TV relaunch of “The Twilight Zone.”

With “Us,” he makes it clear that he intends to give M. Night Shyamalan a run for the money when it comes to spooky tales with twisty endings.

The story: Adelaide and Gabe take a vacation with their two kids to Santa Cruz, a sunny beachside city in California. However, Adelaide is filled with anxiety over the visit. As a young girl, she wandered away from her parents while on the Santa Cruz boardwalk and wound up in a frightful funhouse where she encountered a doppelgänger of herself. It had a lasting effect on Adelaide’s psyche.

Now, back in the house near Santa Cruz, the family members are taken aback when they spot four shadowy figures standing in their driveway in the dark of night. Dressed in red jumpsuits, and bearing large, sharp scissors, the eerie foursome appear to be mirror images of Adelaide and her family. These intruders attack them, but Adelaide et al. manage to escape, racing to the safety of their friends’ home … only to discover that Josh and Kitty and their twin daughters have been murdered by their own lookalikes in red jumpsuits. Breaking News on TV reveals that the country is being attacked by an army of these red-suited killers known as “The Tethered.” The danger for Adelaide and her family is far from over.

“Us” is still playing this week at Tropic Cinema.

Jordan Peele says he was inspired by an old “Twilight Zone” episode called “Mirror Image,” a story about a young woman and her evil doppelgänger.

Given the clone-like theme of “Us,” all the actors play two roles in the film – that of the “real” character and that of the duplicate version.

Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”) stars as both wide-eyed Adelaide and as her dangerous twin, Red.

Winston Duke (“Black Panther”) plays Adelaide’s husband Gabe and his doppelgänger, Abraham.

Shahadi Wright Joseph (TV’s “Hairspray Live!”) is great as daughter Zora and her Tethered twin, Umbrae. Evan Alex (TV’s “Kidding”) plays both the Halloween-mask-wearing son Jason and his pyromaniac double, Pluto.

Add to this small cast Elisabeth Moss (TV’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Mad Men”) as Adelaide’s friend Kitty and her murderous lookalike, Dahlia. Tim Heidecker (“Ant-Man and the Wasp”) fills in as Kitty’s self-indulgent hubby Josh and his hard-to-kill twin, Tex.

Also a special nod goes to Madison Curry and Ashley McKoy, who appear as Adelaide at younger ages.

Sure, there are enough holes in the film’s underlying logic for Zora to drive an SUV through – and she does. But Jordan Peele is counting on a plot that Rolling Stone called “spill-your-soda scary” to thoroughly distract you.

Will you be scared? Yes, about as much as you were in “Get Out,” but not as much as, say, “Paranormal Activity.”

The spookiness is more akin to M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense” or “The Village.” The suspense level up there with “A Quiet Place” or “Bird Box.”

As for home invasion movies, it offers a heart-pounding sense of fear similar to what you’d experience watching “In Their Skin” or “The Strangers.”

In short: A cute “Home Alone,” it’s not.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com