Us: 7 Ways Jordan Peele Defies Modern Horror Conventions

Plenty of viewers will likely predict the final moments of Us within the first few minutes of the film. Twists may have worked in older films such as Psycho, but a generation of moviegoers trained by M. Night Shyamalan to look for twists in every ending can be difficult to take by surprise. The genius of Us, however, is that the film itself seems to be aware that its twist is obvious.

A lesser horror film might try to hide its twist through deception and plot holes, or simply tack on a twist that doesn't make sense in light of the preceding events. Instead, Us practically beats its viewers over the head with foreshadowing. From the moment Adelaide and Red meet in the hall of mirrors, it becomes clear that the little girl who returned to her parents was not the same one who wandered off at the boardwalk.

This actually works to the film's advantage. Audiences don't need to feign surprise at the final reveal, because the film's twist serves an entirely different purpose than to shock the viewer. Knowing Adelaide's past, we're left to decipher whether her past misdeeds truly define her in light of her clear dedication to the family she's protected throughout the film.

Clearly, the Tethered are capable of humanity, and Adelaide's past evils have not kept her from feeling love and developing a maternal instinct. At the same time, Adelaide achieved that humanity at the expense of an innocent life. If her goodness arose from evil, is she truly good? If Red's evil arose from being banished to a lesser caste, is she truly a villain or merely a victim of the most demented large-scale class segregation ever conceived?

Questions such as these are far more important to the film's ending than the mere element of surprise. Us is not a two-bit horror film that blows its final moments on cheap shock value. Us is the Nietzschean abyss of modern horror, asking viewers to look deeper into its message and staring back at them all the while.