Gabe Wilson (Winston Duke) and his wife Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) have brought their children, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex), to their holiday home by the coast, excited to have some time together as a family to relax after a busy year.
Along with neighbours Josh Tyler (Tim Heidecker) and his wife Kitty (Elisabeth Moss) and twin daughters Becca and Lindsey (Cali and Noelle Sheldon), the family spends a day down at the beach at Santa Cruz.
Adelaide is incredibly nervous to go back to that beach, as something happened to her when she was younger on the boardwalk there. Wandering away from her parents, she saw something in the hall of mirrors that terrified her: a mirror image of herself (that wasn’t just in the mirror). Traumatised ever since, she fears that something or someone might be waiting there for her to return.
When they get home that night, after dark, they discover a mysterious family standing in their driveway. A family that look exactly like the four of them. A family who then terrorise them, and seem desperate to kill them all.
And that’s not all. It seems everyone around them has perfect doubles, too, including the Tyler family, who are being terrorised in exactly the same way.
I really can’t say more than that; it will spoil too much for you if you should care to watch it. (This isn’t a film for the faint of heart, but if you enjoy this genre of film, and particularly if you were a fan of Get Out, then check it out for yourself).
Once again, Jordan Peele’s unique sense of humour (which viewers of his sketch comedy show, Key and Peele, will recall) is on display here, as well as his unique take on the world, particularly as related to the horror and thriller genres.
His script is incredibly clever, and has so many things hiding just below the surface, little gems for audiences to enjoy if they look past the mere narrative structure.
As with Get Out before it, this film has an awful lot to say about race relations, particularly what it means to grow up as an African American in a society that is almost entirely controlled by white people. However, this time around, his commentary is a lot more subtle than it was in Get Out. While the messages of Get Out were incredibly overt and obvious (not in a bad way, just saying), this film does not at first glance appear to have anything to do with race.
Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis has done an incredible job at using light and shadow to not only create a growing sense of dread and terror, but also to highlight some of the film’s darker ‘messages’. Many of the scenes take place in almost total darkness, with just barely enough light to make out character silhouettes.
The score (by Michael Abels) is very clever as well. Sure, large sections of the movie are not scored at all, but the parts that are really shine; his ability to convey psychological mood through the use of music and sound is clear. There are significant sections also where the music is used to hint at a growing sense of impending dread, and when combined with the innovative cinematography, make for an overall effect that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
I have to say unequivocally that Jordan Peele has done it again. This film is – in my opinion – even better than his debut feature, and I would even say better than a lot of other films I have seen recently. Peele’s ability to take what appears to be nothing more than yet another horror film and make it something so much more is a lesson in clever writing and expert direction.
10 out of 10.
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