Please write a paragraph of two in response to each of the following prompts.
What is the significance of this film being titled “Us”? How is the idea of “us” complicated by the emergence of uncanny doubles in this film?
“Us” has a lot of complicated elements, but sometimes it can be helpful to briefly summarize what we know about a movie (or any text) in order to better understand it. With that in mind, who is the protagonist in this film? What is the “inciting incident” that launches the main narrative? From there, what happens? Using just a few sentences, retell the basic story of the movie in the simplest terms.
Compare and contrast the portrayal of family in “Us” with the portrayals we’ve seen in the previous three films in this series – “A Quite Place,” “Hereditary,” “Tigers Are Not Afraid,” and “The Witch.” You may address this topic as broadly or as narrowly as you like.
Like the other films in this series, “Us” and Jordan Peele’s previous film “Get Out” have been called “elevated horror.” Do you think this is an apt label for “Us? Why or why not? What is this film trying to tell us?