Who’s in the mirror?

Oh, those evil doppelgangers and their wonderful place in horror lore: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing and now Us, Jordan Peele’s frightening follow-up to his highly acclaimed 2017 directorial debut, Get Out. I ask you, what could be creepier than another version of you trying to slash your neck? For his new film, Peele plays on that ultimate nightmare with chilling glee.

The film starts with a quote about America having many miles of tunnels underneath its surface, then a quick flashback shot of a C.H.U.D. videotape next to a VCR. A TV plays an advertisement for Hands Across America, and there is all sorts of subtext spelled out before anything really happens.

When a young girl (played by Madison Curry) in the same ’80s flashback drifts away from her father at an amusement park on the Santa Cruz pier and finds herself in a darkened hall of mirrors, Peele shows that he’s not playing around. Prepare to be scared, disturbed and uncomfortable.

Things then jump to the present day, where Adelaide and Gabe (Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke) are taking their children, Zora and Jason, to the beach. It’s the same beach we saw in the flashback, and we find out that Adelaide was that young girl. She’s not happy about revisiting the place, but Gabe and kids really want to go, so she takes one for the team.

The family excursion quickly becomes the worst vacation ever, as another family shows up at night. A quick examination of the intruders reveals what the commercials for this movie have already told you: The family outside is a darker mirror image of the stunned family inside the house. They aren’t coming over to borrow the lawn mower. They intend to kill.

No question, writer-director Peele has been gobbling up zombie, slasher and isolation-horror movies all of his life, and their influences play a significant part in his vision. The movie is a mind bender, but it’s also an efficient, bare-knuckled horror-thriller. It’s the whole package.

Nyong’o gets a chance to play two meaty roles here and she’s all over both. While Adelaide is a strong-willed mom we can’t help but root for, her doppleganger, Red, is a croaky monster who comes with an unexpected level of pathetic sadness.

Before his more recent horror success, Peele was known for his comedy work, so it’s no surprise that, in addition to being able to scare the piss out of audiences, he can make us laugh, as well. In that way, Us is often as funny as it is scary. Duke is a crack-up as the dad who can’t quite get it right when trying to protect his family. And in a masterstroke of casting, Tim Heidecker—of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!—scores high as Gabe’s smug friend Josh and wise-ass husband to Kitty (Elisabeth Moss, whose work here qualifies as some of her best).

There is a lot more going on with Us than scares and laughs. When asked who they are, Red, the lead doppelganger, replies, “We are Americans,” and without giving away much more, that is a clue to how wide Peele’s scope is in what is also an unforgiving condemnation of this country’s history—and its current state—of social injustice. The movie is a lot of fun, but it’s also a heavy one.