Ambiguous places, halfway between euphoria and terror, haunted by visions of the past and the future alike, amusement parks are a common backdrop in many films. Their shimmering lights, joyful crowds, and exhilarating rides often serve as a stage for contrast, where they reflect, in turn, a desire for illusion, breathless consumerism, melancholic solitude, and buried anxieties.
Continuing his reinterpretation of genre cinema through the lens of African-American culture, Jordan Peele (Get Out) explores the theme of doppelgängers, supernatural doubles who haunt their human counterparts. In Us, the Wilson family's vacation is interrupted by the appearance of an evil family that looks exactly like them.
Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is known for his film and television work in the comedy and horror genres. Peele's breakout role came in 2003, when he was hired as a cast member on the Fox sketch comedy series Mad TV, where he spent five seasons, leaving the show in 2008. In the following years, he and his frequent Mad TV collaborator,** Keegan-Michael Key**, created and starred in their own Comedy Central sketch comedy series Key & Peele (2012–2015). His 2017 directorial debut, the horror film Get Out, was a critical and box office success, for which he received numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, along with nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. He received another Academy Award nomination for Best Picture for producing Spike Lee's drama BlacKkKlansman (2018). He also directed, wrote, and produced the acclaimed films Us (2019) and Nope (2022). Critics have since frequently named Get Out and Nope as among the best films of the 21st century.
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