Title: “Us”

Release date: March 22, 2019

Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex

Directed by: Jordan Peele

Run time: 2 hours, 1 minute

Rated: R

What it’s about: A family’s vacation home is invaded by doppelgangers of themselves.

How I saw it: Jordan Peele had a hard act to follow — his own. His feature film debut, “Get Out,” was a huge hit at the box office in 2017 and almost universally lauded by critics. The horror story with bits of comedy and a lot of commentary on race relations in the U.S. was nominated for Best Picture and earned Peele an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Peele had set the bar high. Maybe a bit too high. It might be much to ask of his sophomore effort, “Us,” to hit the heights of its predecessor, and it doesn’t. But it does not miss by much. A horror story that amps up the blood and tones down (or at least makes less obvious) its take on society, “Us” is nonetheless an outstanding, meticulously made and fun film that can be enjoyed on many levels.

“Us” is the story of the Wilsons, a middle-class family who set out to enjoy a beach vacation in Santa Cruz, Calif. But something is amiss, and we know why. The mother, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o, in a tour de force performance), had a traumatic experience on the same beach back in 1986. She got separated from her family, wandered into a funhouse during a thunderstorm and encountered what appeared to be her doppelganger. Fast-forward to current day, and Adelaide, now with a husband (Winston Duke) and two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex), still is bothered by what happened. She is suffering from, as we are told in flashbacks, post-traumatic stress disorder.

Though uncomfortable, she seems to be soldiering through the vacation until a family arrives at their vacation home and stands unresponsive at the end of the driveway. They don’t stay unresponsive for long, and the Wilsons soon realize the family is made up of doppelgangers of themselves. But they aren’t exact replicas. The doppelgangers speak in grunts, except for Adelaide’s doppelganger, Red, whose voice is as terrifying as it can be hard to understand. They carry gold scissors, and they aren’t visiting the Wilsons for a social call. Soon the Wilsons are faced with the unenviable task of killing people who look like them or being killed by them.

Without giving everything away (which might not be possible given the film’s many layers), the doppelgangers are part of a group of underground beings called the Tethered. Their lives, right down to their movements, are tied to their duplicates living the good life above ground. The Tethered aren’t happy with their existence, and one of them, Red, has organized an uprising that looks not unlike a zombie apocalypse. Will the Tethered overtake the world? Will the Wilsons survive? Will they want to?

Who are the Tethered? Peele gives us bits and pieces of an explanation and a bit of a back story, but not much. They could represent the marginalized among us. Or a reflection of our inner selves.  If we each were faced with our doppelganger, how uncomfortable would that be?  Here’s guessing plenty uncomfortable.

Peele is a fan and student of the horror genre, and it shows. “Us” plays homage to such films as “The Shining,” “The Goonies,” “The Birds” and “It Follows.” Even “Home Alone” gets its moment. “Us” is littered with 1980s pop culture references. And it has a M. Night Shyamalan-like twist at the end. Think “The Sixth Sense.” Like in that movie, the twist in “Us” will have you rewinding the movie in your brain and kicking yourself for not having recognized all the clues. And there are plenty of clues.

Peele leaves much unanswered in “Us,” and that can make it a tad frustrating and perhaps not totally satisfying (at least at first), but it also will leave audiences thinking. It’s one of those movies that can be picked apart and discussed in depth, if you choose, and should only get better upon multiple viewings. It can be taken as a deep philosophical statement about the duality of human beings and society, and the current state of haves and have-nots in the U.S. But it also can be enjoyed for what it is on the surface, a slasher movie that spills enough blood to be disturbing (you might not be able to look at a rabbit the same way ever again) and has enough laughs to lighten the tension and keep it fun. Ultimately, what we make of “Us” is up to us.

My score: 85 out of 100

Should you see it? Yes, if you can stomach quite a bit of blood, tension and unsettling images and themes.