"We" by Jordan Peele Offers a Strange Sequel to "Get Out" (Critic)

Steven Spielberg scared us to go in the water in the day. Not to be outdone, Jordan Peele will make you avoid all the mirrors, as well as worry about your own shadow.

With Peele's new "We" horror movie (★★★ ½ out of four, rated R in cinemas on Friday), the Academy Award-winning director proves that the masterful scares of his first film "Get Out" n & # They were not a coincidence, but rather a revealer. bad things to come. While racism and privilege were at the heart of his breakthrough in social thriller, Peele delivers a highly relevant movie monster for 2019: ourselves.

The Wilsons are a Californian family visiting the beach of Santa Cruz, the home town of Mama Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o), where a traumatic incident in a carnival attraction in 1986 continues to haunt her. Because of this, she tends to be too protective while her carefree and carefree father, Gabe (Winston Duke), does his best to make everything light for his volunteer teen daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and her young son. Jason (Evan Alex).

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Adelaide, who lives a day of strange coincidences and strange events, wants to escape the city and that's when things are really bad: the Wilsons seem to have idiots, who mysteriously present themselves in the aisle for a rendezvous at dusk, brandishing crimson suits and gold scissors and an air of menace. Calling themselves "The Attachés", because of the close ties they have with their counterparts, they invade the Wilson's home and make it clear that they take back the life that the look-alikes should be theirs.

Their introduction, in particular that of the Red disaster (Nyong'o) of Adelaide, is rather frightening and each double confronts the member of the family which corresponds to him. Much of the "We" milieu is full of familiar horror rhythms, while the heroic clan defends itself and learns that the crazy phenomenon is not only isolated. A terrifying night opens on the day of revelation, while truths rise on the Wilson, Adelaide and Red engage in a graceful and violent step (literally and figuratively), and a particularly important movement will let you turn your head well after your buttocks have stopped in his seat.

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Rather than a mere festival of fear that "get out", "we" is also funnier, deeper and more enigmatic in its own way. The film is full of symbols and references to question, including a rather calamitical biblical verse from the Book of Jeremiah, a national event marking the 80s (better not to know it, but it's great) and a group of rabbits, and Peele leaves a good part to the interpretation. What makes some more fertile will enrich others as he pursues his quest for a man to get Americans to scream and yield to self-inquiry.

Abraham (Winston Duke, far left), Umbrae (Joseph Shahadi Wright), Pluto (Evan Alex) and Red (Lupita Nyong) are the evil crooks of "We". (Photo: CLAUDETTE BARIUS / UNIVERSAL)

One thing that is clear about "We" is the emphasis on duality. Some things are subtle (a "Thriller" shirt, for example) although the story structure of the film, as well as that of The Tethered, are pretty obvious. While most actors have the chance to play evil versions of their character, Nyong'o is astonishingly amazing as a malevolent Red, a transformative role that seduces and repels with her annoying vocal annoyance and strange, insect-like movements.

The cinematic influences are also evident – the youngest Wilson is wearing a "Jaws" shirt on the beach, reminding shark-infested waters by Spielberg many summers ago which now give way to a strange scarecrow with bloody gloves and shears that the boy sees in "We." Peele is certainly Hitchcock of this generation, but also a true American original with introspective themes in hand and a suspense to spare.

The man makes you think more than he can frighten – and seeing how scary Peele can be is saying something.

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