Us — When Horror Became a Mirror for Society
Us is not “just another horror movie.” There certainly is a sense of cultural ‘event’ surrounding the movie, at least for the audience. There was a cultural ‘event’ that moved far beyond the cinema, for audience members left the theater discussing doppelgängers, and the separation of characters suggesting societal divides, and the duality of and within the human person. For an audience that is used to ‘pop’ horror, Us offered an experience that was far more disquieting, in that it was a ‘mirror’ reflecting the audience’s deepest societal fears; the horror was not simply a genre. In a country like India, where entertainment derives a great deal of inspiration, and is, hence, horror in India is often ‘superstitious’, Peele’s vision of ‘Us’ was more expressive, initially unsettling, and, oddly, relatable.
The Story That Haunted the World
The movie haunts the audience with the story of Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) and her family vacationing in Santa Cruz, where they encounter horrifying doubles of the family, the ‘Tethered’, ‘pale’ shadows of the family members, that represent the rage, trauma, and societal neglect that is ‘unacknowledged’ within the family. Initially, the story appears to be about a simple home invasion, but it explores the ideas of ‘identity’ ‘privilege’, and ‘social neglect’ more deeply. The ‘Tethered’, in their red jumpsuits and with ‘haunting’ scissors, became iconic cultural symbols.
Adelaide, played by Lupita Nyong’o, carries the emotional weight of the film. Nyong’o’s preparation was so intense she focused on the psychology of children, trauma, and psycho-motor development. She even collaborated with a choreographer on the movement of the Tethered, creating a walk that was simultaneously chilling and disturbingly human. Nyong’o explained, “I wanted them to feel like they were a part of us — a reflection we can’t escape.”
Shahadi Wright Joseph, who played the role of Zora Wilson, was also challenged on multiple levels. Zora presented a unique challenge to Joseph since the character makes a long journey, moving from fear and hesitation to active resolution. Zora’s fight and run scenes were copious, so were the choreography and scenes that required raw emotion. These were accompanied by instructions to be authentic. Off-screen, Wright Joseph said that the film’s theme of identity, of a young Black girl who is learning to assert her presence in the world, was something she deeply resonated with.
When Fashion Became Fear
Us’s cultural impact was most vividly seen in its integration into popular culture. The red jumpsuit worn by the Tethered was a global phenomenon, seen at Comic-Con, Halloween parties, and even on the runway. The jumpsuit became more than a costume; it embodied rebellion, conformity, and a collective identity. Designers and stylists alluded to the costume in magazine editorials and music videos, juxtapositioning horror with haute couture.
In India, the horror became a jumpsuit with the same disarmingly unsettling ease. Fashion influencers on social media and TikTok paired their clones with the jumpsuit, and for a localized version, added sneakers and desi jewelry. The visual culture of horror was quickly normalized to everyday life, as the eerie image of the Tethered clones was remixed and circulated in office memes and around student protests.
Memes, Social Media, and the Language of Fear
Memes became the heartbeat of Us’s viral presence. The phrase “We are Americans” morphed into a template for everything from political satire to personal gripes. On Instagram and Twitter, people shared their own “Tethered moments” — photos of their doppelgängers, jokes about inner demons, and reflections on duality in society. Even Indian meme culture embraced it, reinterpreting the scissors-wielding Tethered as metaphors for exam stress, office politics, or sibling rivalry.
Media buzz was relentless. Peele’s interviews were dissected line by line, and articles speculated about hidden meanings — from critiques of economic inequality to subtle horror allegories for privilege. Film clubs, college debates, and even political panels used Us as a starting point for discussions on systemic oppression and societal neglect.
Jordan Peele’s Vision — A Perfect Storm
Peele grows the intent of the film with quiet ferocity. He and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis paired for the creation of both the ‘effects’ and the ‘carnival’ color palettes. Gioulakis composed the ‘golden’ and ‘sandy’ beaches with ‘red’ and ‘blood’ and decorated the ‘gore’ tunnels beneath Santa Cruz. The dissonant and distorted violins of the sound designer Johnnie Burn, paired with screams of a wild beast, were calculated as a psychological and primal distress trigger. Peele illustrated the Tethered as “everyone’s unspoken fears made flesh” and ‘gore’ should not be the only considerate element in the horror.
Peele, being of a filmmaking royalty, knows how to make a ‘royal pain’ for his cast. Coordinating the movements for the Tethered family scenes were emotionally as distressing. He expected his cast to as ‘order fireworks’ and to ‘border’ their panicked outbursts, to improvise, in the family scenes. This made him ‘organic’ and terror in a typecast role as ‘distributed’. As it ‘disturbed’ him, it ‘drained’ the ‘royal pain’.
These were the subtleties that compelled fans. Fans produced viral content that gave a sanguine analysis of the intervals between the gestures of the ‘twins’ and differentiated the expressions. Even diasporas of fans, with layered symbolism and choreography of the film, were motivated to the extent of recreating scenes.
Off-Screen Journeys and Real-life Resonance
Within Us, performative versatility and emotional range, especially for the horror genre, became Lupita Nyong’o’s hallmark. with her accolades. Shahadi Wright Joseph’s visibility offered her more varied and intricate characters in young adult and mainstream cinema.
Even supporting actors, like Elisabeth Moss in cameo roles, found themselves praised for lending weight to the eerie atmosphere. Peele’s success cemented his stature, not solely as a filmmaker, but also as a cultural commentator — someone who could turn genre films into social mirrors.
In India, the discussions around Us and the Tethered often equated the struggle with broader societal issues like class disparity, oppression across gender, and intergenerational and unrecognized trauma. Psychologists and cultural critics, as a teaching aide, used it to illustrate how art can expose and reveal suppressed societal anxieties.
Memorable Moments
Some sequences etched themselves into the collective memory. The opening beach scene was bright, playful, and yet, tense. It established the duality theme immediately. The mirror encounters, where family members confront their doppelganger, became a shorthand for self-reflection in the form of memes and GIFs. And, the final reveal, echoing the duality twist, sparked endless online discourse. Who is the “real” Adelaide? How do we reconcile identity, nature and nurture?
Peele’s insistence on ambiguity, even years later, is what keeps Us relevant. Its imagery and questions seeped into the everyday conversation, fashion and art, and concerned the people long after the film concluded. The movie, in this sense, became less of a narrative and more of a lens through which the audiences could explore the movie’s central themes of fear, identity and society.
A Cultural Wave
Us was more than a film. It was a cultural phenomenon. It served as a mirror, reflecting the hidden and the visible, the personal and the societal. Us’s impact on fashion, memes, media and discourse demonstrates that the horror genre can do more than evoke fear. It can inspire reflection, spark creativity, and become a part of the social fabric.
It sparked conversations among audiences. It marked another milestone in the career of the actors. And for Jordan Peele, it served as yet another example of seamlessly integrating social critique with entertainment. In India and elsewhere, Us has come to mean duality, dread and the uncanny. It goes to show that when accompanied with conviction and audacity, film art can extend far beyond the parameters of the medium.
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