10 Horror Movie Villains Who Were... Kind Of Right

4. Us (2019) - The Tethered

Jordan Peele Us Publicity Still
Blumhouse

Everybody in the world of Us has an evil doppelgänger. They live below us, waiting to come up and go on a murder spree – so how in god’s name does one rationalize that?

In Jordan Peele’s 2019 horror hit Us, a mirror is held up against the audience, posing the question, “how good do you really think you are?” Protagonist Adelaide Wilson goes on a vacation with her family, which is quickly interrupted by the arrival of doppelgängers for each one of them. These doppelgängers are called The Tethered, who attack and torment the family. Across the country, other doppelgängers do the same.

As the story progresses, and Adelaide is led to an abandoned underground facility, her doppelgänger explains that The Tethered are clones created by the government years prior. The Tethered were abandoned, left for generations, and Adelaide’s doppelgänger reveals that she had led them to escape. Their goal was to reclaim the lives that they had lived in the shadow of for so long.

The film then smacks the audience over the head with a plot-twist, revealing that Adelaide and her doppelgänger had actually been switched years prior. What is interesting, thematically, about this plot-twist is how it forces us to analyse whether any of us are inherently ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or more so a product of our circumstances. Food for thought.

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Contributor
Contributor

Dan is a writer and actor originally from South Australia who now lives in a constant state of anxiety... and Los Angeles. Whether writing about movies, watching movies, or binging the Great British Bake-off, Dan approaches any endeavour with a steely resolve which is rivalled only by his ability to lie about his strengths. For professional inquiries, call Melissa Cropley - Dan's mum; she wishes he would call more often and you'd really be doing him a favour.