Accompanied by her husband, son and daughter, Adelaide Wilson returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears soon become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.
Plot: A family’s serene beach vacation turns to chaos when their doppelgängers appear and begin to terrorize them.
Director: Jordan Peele
Aspect Ratio: 2.39.1
Runtime: 116 min
Rotten Tomatoes Consensus: With Jordan Peele’s second inventive, ambitious horror film, we have seen how to beat the sophomore jinx, and it is Us.
Online Ratings:
- Rotten Tomatoes 94%
- IMDB 7.1
- Metacritic 81
“Jordan Peele does it again — another horror film to watch again and again.”
Review:
This movie was shot with Arri Alexa Mini & SXT cameras and finished at a 2k Digital Intermediate, so you will get upscaled 4k image for this release. As per the norm with UHD releases, it was also given a HDR color grade for your viewing pleasure in both Dolby Vision and HDR10. When it comes to the grain levels, there’s practically none — so grain haters, you’re ready to go.
The first thing to note is that this disc is a decent jump over the Blu-ray disc, and while not drastic, it’s definitely noticeable across the board. You will see this immediately with the opening scene inside the Santa Cruz carnival. The blacks are deep and the carnival light, color and ambience illuminate perfectly under the night sky. The darkness (or lack of light) continues during most of the movie and the black levels, shadow contrast, detail and sharpness stay steady UHD-approved throughout.
Something that UHD always does the best are the character close-ups and US keeps that tradition alive. You will notice increased detail down to the characters blemishes, pores, hair, beard stubble and the appearance of sweat… even the most subtle perspiration on their foreheads.
A specific moment where you will get HDR, black levels, clarity, detail, contrast and sharpness packaged together is the scene in Chapter 8 when they’re all sitting in the living room across from each other. The only light in the entire room is given off by the fire in the fireplace and the moonlight through the curtains in the windows behind them.
The HDR on Red’s face is color-contrasted perfectly from the fire-lit warmth on one side to an absence of color on the other. More color and contrast is showcased in the gradient red on their jump suits — gradient meaning bright red on the bottom half (due to lighting in the room) fading all the way out of color to the upper bodies shadowed in darkness. To top that all off, there is amazing clarity and detail with various characters pores, facial hair, sweat, tears — the works. Mix that in with great acting, especially from Lupita Nyong’o and you have a crystal presentation on all fronts. A lot is going on in this scene visually, and it all works.
While this is a perfect example on all fronts, you will get pieces of this stapled throughout the entire movie, start to finish.
As you know or expected, the majority of this film takes place under the night sky, but the few daytime scenes are very bright and standout on their own as both colorful and detailed. You will see an example of this when the family is hanging out on the beach in Chapter 5 with the detail being enhanced in the sand, sky and waves in the ocean — while color stays bold on their swimwear and beach towels. It’s not exciting, but it’s crisp and solid.
Overall this movie holds rock-solid from start to finish, and while it’s not a demo-worthy presentation, there are zero faults in it’s presentation and it’s practically flawless. This is an easy recommendation and must-own for anyone that loves these genre type of films. It’ll be a great addition to your UHD collection, so make sure you go and pick up US at your local retailer today.
Jordan Peele is proving that he’s a staple in this new-horror genre renaissance. I say ‘new’ because people always associate horror with slasher films — so if I needed to be more specific, I would say the ‘new-horror’ is more of a physiological and folk type of horror. The only other director making waves like Peele is Ari Aster the (first time) director of Hereditary and upcoming film Midsommar, which Jordan Peele has always raved about with the highest acclaim.
The best thing about Peele’s films are the budgets, this movie costed $20 million to make and brought in over $250 million at the box office, let alone home video and rental sales. With big gains on his current films, there is still tons of money still to be made, so we are sure his works aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon.
What does Jordan Peele have us his sleeves next? Candyman is set to release in 2020, so until then…
Cheers,
Matt.
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