Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Us Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 11, 2019

Us is a Horror film with smarts and some teeth behind it. Writer/Director Jordan Peele, the mastermind behind 2017's superb Get Out, crafts a tale of suspense, violence, personalized terror, and large-scale frights, all with sharp social over- and undertones playing alongside. He builds an intimate, personal portrait of longstanding fright that clashes with a far flung yet creepily believable vision of something far bigger and far more sinister. That balance between personally connected terror and the unravelling of the world around makes for an effective juxtaposition that Peele explores in hypnotic cadence, slowly but surely unveiling new realities and revelations with each new scene.

The year is 1986. Young Adelaide Thomas (Madison Curry) wanders away from her family at a Santa Cruz, California carnival and enters a strange hall of mirrors where she frighteningly encounters a perfect double of herself. It’s a traumatizing moment that leaves the girl speechless for many years. Decades later, she’s a grown woman with a husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and two children, Zora and Jason (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex, respectively). The family is vacationing in Santa Cruz at Gabe’s jolly insistence. Adelaide’s emotional scars quickly resurface, and she has no desire to remain. But as Gabe brushes off her concerns, the family comes to realize that four red-clad individuals await them outside. It’s not long before they’re in the house, with deadly scissors in hand, and reveal that they are doppelgängers with the intention to kill. As the bloody night progresses, the family fights for its life as a much larger danger is exposed.

Like with Get Out, Peele builds in Us a story of unnerving cadence and terrifying revelation in the tradition of Hitchcock and Shyamalan. The film thrives not on the ebbs and flows of its violence, of scenes of killings and the red-clad doppelgängers stalking and toying with their prey. No, Us is built almost entirely around the psychological. Adelaide's longstanding mental wounds stem from a preview, of sorts, of the future, the child version of herself coming face-to-face with, literally, a living, breathing mirror image. Her fears are all but dismissed by her husband who quickly alters course when confronted with his own vision of himself and of his family. But it's the mental anguish that drives the film, and Peele gradually pulls back the veil on something much larger than a mere physical duplicate. That revelation and its details are not necessarily vital to the story, which is more concerned with deeper thematic drivers that speak to a wide array of content, from individuality to oppression and well beyond. Peele reveals just enough for the audience to puzzle through the real-world ramifications while building a well versed entertainment vessel to hold the deeper content. It's another job well done from one of the up-and-coming greats.

The film is well cast and performed. Lupita Nyong'o's work is of particular note. She harbors a deep-seeded fear born of a single moment when she literally "found herself," and found her fate, in a hall of mirrors. Like much of the movie, the allusion is not subtle, but it's what Peele and Nyong'o do with it that drives the film. Nyong'o goes through the expected process through the film, transitioning from frightened would-be victim to more stout heroine, but not without towing the emotional baggage that defines who she is. The performance is particularly exceptional considering Peele's ultimate reveal, which challenges the actress to find a greater purpose within the character's overreaching arc. Indeed, the film's finale, and the entire dramatic current and thematic layout, offer ample opportunity for study. "Everything in this movie was deliberate," Peele has said, and the cast's ability to fine-tune the arcs and explore the personalities with the depth necessary not to carry the hack-and-slash but rather the more significant content is quite the accomplishment.

Us Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Us makes its Blu-ray debut with a pleasing 1080p transfer. It's true to its digital roots, offering a steady, stable textural output and well-rounded colors. The picture reveals tightly defined skin textures with ease, finding pores, lines, scruff, and scars with commendable complexity and just about as much sharpness as the 1080p resolution allows. Environmental details are firm and pleasing, whether a 1980s carnival, home interiors, or several key daytime locations. Overall image clarity and stability rate as excellent. Colors are another strong point. Much of the film takes place at night, but colors hold bright and accurate. Carnival lights glow nicely against perfectly deep nighttime blacks in the film's opening sequence, though blacks appear a bit elevated when Adelaide enters the hall of mirrors. The red outfits the Tethered wear are dense and deep and foreboding. During a key daytime scene late in the film, flames burn with appropriate color intensity and surrounding elements appear bold. Skin tones are accurate to actor complexion. A bit of low-light noise lingers for much of the movie, but there are no other immediately concerning source or encode issue of note.

Us Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Us' Dolby Atmos soundtrack is up to the challenge of delivering the film's fairly intense and involved sonic landscape. There is a natural feel for atmospheric details at the carnival. Plenty of one-off discrete effects pepper the listening area but give way to less dynamic sounds as Adelaide wanders off down towards the beach. The track features many involved moments that offer a harmonious compilation of musical and sound effect sincerity. Discrete details and well engineered sound movements help shape a number of scenes, whether those which are immediately violent or those portending fear and violence. The track makes use of every channel in an effort to fully draw the listener in, which includes sounds such as splatters of blood flinging against surfaces and bloody droplets dripping from walls. The track's ability to fine tune and finely place its sound details create a full, capable atmosphere that perfectly compliments the film's frightening cadence. Bass is aggressive but not dominant. Overhead channels offer little in the way of discrete details but do help better define the larger world around the characters. Dialogue is clear and center focused. It is always well prioritized.

Us Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Us contains a handful of featurettes (which are a little more meaty than the typical ~2 minute Universal throwaways) and a few deleted scenes. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• The Monsters Within Us (1080p, 4:45): A closer look at the four (or eight, as the case may be) main characters and the challenges of portraying them.
• Tethered Together: Making Us Twice (1080p, 7:29): This piece explores the challenges the actors and filmmakers faced in shooting each scene twice, once each with the actors in each character.
• Redefining a Genre: Jordan Peele's Brand of Horror (1080p, 5:31): Cast and crew, and Peele himself, talk up Peele's passion for the Horror genre, his favorite Horror films, influences and inspirations, his direction, and more.
• The Duality of Us (1080p, 9:56): Peele discusses his deep-seeded fear of doppelgängers, doppelgänger mythology, the film's social themes, imagery, and more.
• Becoming Red (1080p, 4:09): Footage featuring Lupita Nyong'o getting into character in between takes.
• Scene Explorations (1080p): Peele and the cast break down a trio of key scenes with interview snippets, film clips, storyboards, and behind the scenes footage. Included are Seven Second Massacre (2:41), It's a Trap (2:02), and I Just Want My Little Girl Back (2:53).
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 6:28 total runtime): Included are I Am Not Even Near You, Rabbit Season, That's Badass, Driftwood, The P Is Silent, and I Wanna Go Home.
• We're All Dying (1080p, 6:22): Additional footage/outtakes from a beachside scene.
• As Above, So Below: Grand Pas De Deux (1080p, 5:02): Zora and Umbrae's dance routine.

Us Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Peele's ideas open many avenues of thought, and he smartly leaves much of it to the viewer to extrapolate the bigger picture in play. The tale opens up endless possibilities for thought exercise, concerning both the narrative strokes and the thematic issues the film raises in a not-so-subtle but not-so-overt manner. It's very well balanced, generously thoughtful, and impressively crafted and performed. Universal's Blu-ray release of Us delivers high yield video and audio presentations. Several extras are included. Highly recommended.