Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Subtle Differences in Costumes, Design, Music for Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’
Variety: “Us,” Jordan Peele’s second outing as a director, following his 2017 critical and box office success “Get Out,” revisits similar psychological horror-thriller territory. But this time the stakes are, well, doubled.
In the new film, to be released by Universal on March 21, Adelaide Wilson, played by Lupita Nyong’o, returns to her childhood beachside home with her husband (Winston Duke) and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex). Suddenly they find themselves clawing to stay alive, as four people who look just like them seem hell-bent on killing them.
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8 comments:
I don't watch this movie, and I don't want to make this a personal thing, but Jordan Peele is an absolute genius, and I may suffer because of that. I am someone who absolutely hates horror, or anything scary. I have distinct memories of being terrified in the middle of the night and just hoping for the sun to come out, because in my head, the moment that it's not dark, nothing can get you. Except for Peele, his philosophy is "horror in broad daylight." I am not a fan. It's far easier to separate yourself from a situation when you see it as fantastical, or made-up: something that is simply a figment of your imagination or a trope for a specific genre. Even so I'm a huge fan of Twin Peaks, because it somehow managed to meld the terrifying and unknown and the monotonous mundane, something that is not easy to marry, in a way that is effective for the storyline. I would also like to commend Peele for the focus on using a soundscape to help push story and emotion. While in a movie like A Quiet Place, the intentional lack of sound helped create the dread, for 'Us' it is the use of battle cries and other eerie voices that push the movie to make the audience feel uncomfortable but not outwardly so.
I cannot wait to see this movie. I saw Get Out last semester, which also has an amazing production design, and when I saw the trailer for Us, I knew it was going to be just as good. My favorite design aspect from Get Out was the sound design, because like the sound editor and composer describe in this article, Peele uses the sounds in his film to keep the audience on the edge of their seat and uneasy, without flashing “Horror! Evil!” in their faces. Michael Abels does an amazing job of making the hair stand on the back of your neck without you even realizing, and the amazing work he is going to do with the strings in his composition is apparent simply in the trailer. I am glad that these two sound artists are working together again with Peele on this movie, because I know that the sound is once again going to be one of the best parts of watching this movie.
As one of countless fans of “Get Out,” I am unbelievably excited to see Jordan Peele’s newest work. One thing in this article that intrigued me was that Peele did not want the conventional aesthetic look and feel of a horror film to make this unbelievable story feel as real as possible. The concept of “horror in broad daylight” is also interesting to me, especially considering the associations with the aesthetics of beaches and the summer; most traditionally “scary” movies that I can think of tend to take place somewhere woodsy and suburban in the winter. The main driving factor that I am excited to experience is the more subconscious eeriness that should creep up on the audience unexpectedly, according to Peele’s vision as well as Trevor Gates’s goals for the sound effects and music of the film. As the title of the article suggests, the subtleties in the design are going to mean the difference in the psychological state of the audience.
Get Out was an incredible film: everything about the film from costumes to setting to dialogues to VFX to sound, you name it, there was nothing that the movie did not excel in. All thanks to Jordan Peele's vision and its subsequent execution.
It is this admiration and faith in his work that I am equally excited to watch "Us". The aspects of creation and production that the article talk about are enough for me to be waiting impatiently for the movie, because the desire to watch something new, unpredictable, psychologically challenging is overwhelming.
But this also puts me in a tight spot where I am forced to think that what if the new movie does not live up to its expectations because that is a huge possibility in any sort of creation. Anyhow, I just hope that I am not disappointed with the film and that I actually love it for whatever it has to offer to the exciting and fulfilling experience of watching a Jordan Peele film.
Echoing what everyone else has said so far, I love Jordan Peele’s work, I am a huge fan of “Get Out” and I love psychological horror movies, so I can’t wait to see “Us” (tomorrow, as a matter of fact). Subtly is an element that not many “horror” films possess, but I think it can be one of the most unsettling and effective elements of a piece. For example, so far in my life, the most unsettling – rather horrifying actually – film I’ve seen is Ari Aster’s “Hereditary” I loved it and I hated it so much, I saw it in theaters twice and noticed different subtle and terrifying details each time. I imagine that “Us” will have that same thoughtful slow burn to it rather than relying on jump scares. I love the idea of “horror in broad daylight” because that’s when the audience feels most comfortable. You can feel a sigh of relief in a theater when watching a horror movie and the next shot is the house during the day, because as the audience we feel confident that nothing bad can happen during the day. I hope that “Us” takes advantage of that idea in the way I think it will. As for the production design itself, it sounds like the team is making a lot of smart and thoughtful choices, and I am very excited to see if their choices read as intended when I see the film tomorrow night.
This is a really interesting article because it goes through like all of preproduction which isn't necessarily the most talked about thing. I love hearing about this even though I will probably never watch this move because I cannot watch thrillers or horror. I hope that it is successful though. Anyway, I really liked hearing just a little from each area because it really shows how each stuck to the concept and made sure that everything fit perfectly together and was cohesive. I think one of my biggest problems with a piece is when it is not cohesive so hearing them all work together to create this movie was really cool. I love the idea behind this movie I think the plot is really interesting but I myself am not going to watch it but I know a lot of people who will. I always think that horror andd thriller movies have really interesting plots and then I try to watch one and I turn it of right away.
I’m seeing ‘Us’ later this week, and after all the reviews, I am so much more than excited. I think the “horror in broad daylight” that Peele wanted to achieve was a super interesting point made in the article. Because most horror is associated with night and the dark, the range of horror happening at all times for their characters is so cool. I also LOVE the way Peele incorporates music into the trailer and movies. Like in Get Out, hearing Childish Gambino’s song, “Redbone”, had me grooving in my seat knowing some awful shit is about to happen. While I was watching the trailer for ‘Us’, the song used was a slowed and horror-style version of the song “I Got 5 On It,” I was in AWE. I love that even though there will be similarities between the two psychological thrillers, there is a large difference in the message. ‘Us’ isn’t another social commentary of racial relations, it is showing that black people can be in horror movies without having to serve a racial purpose. I am so excited to see this movie and everything else Jordan Peele puts out.
I actually saw this movie last night, and I am continually stunned by the way in which Jordan Peele can use horror as social commentary but do it in such a subtle way that you don’t know what you’re seeing until it’s over. I won’t spoil any of it, but the subtlety and sheer brilliance in the way this movie was created and the way it’s story was told is something I have never seen from anyone other than Jordan Peele in a horror film. Horror is often considered the least sincere genre, but it has always had the possibility to be truly powerful and influential, just like we can see in this film. The subtle things in the cinematography, character development of the “tethered” and the symbolism and foreshadowing make it not only scary and horrifying (I screamed 4 times, and that isn’t wast to do) it also makes you leave the theater and think about what you just saw for a long time after. I ended up sitting in the movie theater lobby waiting for an Uber just discussing race relations and class in America and we even witnessed a real life display of what the movie was talking about play out in front of us. 3 African American girls were standing in the movie theater talking, and they got asked to leave if they didn’t have a ticket. We were also sitting in the movie theater talking, and nothing was said to us at all. If that, and the recent murder trial in Pittsburgh doesn’t highlight the need for more media about this, then I don’t know what does.
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