7 films to watch after seeing Us

Jordan Peele clearly has an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, and his newest film, Us, exults in shouting out a huge range of movies — everything from Jaws and The Shining to The Goonies and even the lipstick scene from Black Narcissus. In fact, prior to the movie’s release, Peele revealed a list of films that he had asked the cast to watch in order to create “a shared language” between them all about the kind of movie they were making. That list is as follows: Dead Again, The Shining, The Babadook, It Follows, A Tale of Two Sisters, The Birds, Funny Games, Martyrs, Let the Right One In, and The Sixth Sense.

Many of those titles have a particular resonance to the plot and themes of Us. But watching Us suggests several more titles that Peele didn’t mention that also influenced the film. Here’s a rundown of some of the most telling ones, some from Peele’s list, some not. You should definitely seek them out if you want to gain an even more in-depth understanding of Peele’s complicated cinematic achievement.

If there’s ever a film we didn’t expect to take on new cultural relevance in 2019, it’s the delightfully zany noir thriller Dead Again, which stars Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as two lovers who begin to uncover repressed memories of their former lives, where they were also in a relationship. The pair seems destined to continue playing out their murderous saga through the bodies of their reincarnated counterparts.

Directed by Branagh, Dead Again is an unforgettably campy, unintentionally hilarious cult classic that makes the most of its kooky title. Most importantly for our purposes, it turns a simple pair of scissors into a looming threat — an image that Peele references liberally throughout Us.

For further study: Vertigo (1958)

Horror cinema loves a danger lurking beneath a placid surface, and Us references one of the classics in its opening moments with a nod to C.H.U.D., the 1984 cult film about a group of underground tunnel-dwellers who begin feeding on tasty New Yorkers, usually by way of a well-placed manhole grab.

The titular “C.H.U.D.” stands for both “Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers” and “Contamination Hazard Urban Disposal,” a nod to how the humanoids were created. Like Us, C.H.U.D. explicitly links its subterranean population to a real-world marginalized community — in this case, the homeless. And like virtually all 20th-century science fiction, it implies a theme that Us liberally borrows: Human irresponsibility is the root of all society’s monsters.

Further study: Jaws (1975), Them (1954)

In many ways, Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece of psychological tension is the ultimate doppelgänger film — a testament to the unknowability of the self, and the simultaneous breakdown of individual identity in the face of folie à deux (the madness of two).

Persona’s tale of two women who become caught up in a dangerous interpersonal obsession is a deliciously complicated tangle of myth and madness, secrets and sexuality — one where, crucially, the past is always in dialogue with the present. But what’s especially intriguing with regard to Us is the idea Persona invokes, of a story that has not one unreliable narrator, but two unreliable narrators engaged in a delicate, collaborative process of maintaining their own and each others’ self-deceptions. It’s an idea that’s been revisited since in numerous films, many of which have also influenced Us.

For further study: A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), Mulholland Drive (2001)

Us arguably references 1997’s Funny Games more directly than any other film. (Us also contains one significant visual homage to Funny Games and its direct spiritual son, 2008’s The Strangers.) The bleakest and most well-known of all home invasion films, Michael Haneke’s terrifying masterpiece is pure distilled horror made even more impactful because it’s intended to double as a brutal satire of naive suburban excess.

The homes targeted by the hedonistic gang in Funny Games are situated around an idyllic and isolated lake community very similar to one seen in Us, and the point Us makes — that middle-class walls can’t protect you from its brand of targeted, chaotic destruction — comes straight from the Funny Games playbook.

For further study: The Strangers (2008), Them (2006)

Among the pantheon of horror films in which something strange and possibly metaphorical is stalking the hero, Carnival of Souls stands out both for its early entry into the genre, and for its commitment to its organ-fueled aesthetic. The film’s surreal plot about an accident survivor is made deeply creepy by its strange acting, bizarre camerawork, and a kind of overall baroque weirdness. As a bonus for Us fans, the film also hits the Venn diagram intersection of “freaky carnivals.”

For further study: It Follows (2014), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

In 2017, prior to the release of Get Out, Peele curated a film series for the Brooklyn Academy of Music that was devoted to a subgenre of film Peele dubbed the “social thriller,” and all of his selections were clear influences on Get Out. Among more well-known titles like Rosemary’s Baby and The Shining was Wes Craven’s underrated 1991 horror comedy People Under the Stairs, which made its title into a metaphor for gentrification. (As well as, you know, a literal story about people being trapped under the stairs.)

For further study: The Burbs (1989), Poltergeist (1982)

This film — a masterpiece of New French Extremism that is incidentally my favorite horror film of all time — does appear on Peele’s list of Us influences, and with good reason. But it can’t be overstated that it is not for general viewing audiences.

Martyrs is almost unbearably brutal, and its brutality serves to tell a story that is deeply, unforgettably profound. Drawing heavily from the silent French classic The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Martyrs is remarkable for its vast compassion alongside its complex study of violence and the horrific psychological effects of serious abuse.

The film understands, for instance, all the terrible, far-reaching ways in which violence permanently scars its victims. But it also understands that systemic violence often becomes cyclical because, in certain hands, it becomes a terrible, effective social tool. The interplay and tension between these truths turns Martyrs into a deeply disturbing but utterly transcendent work. However, if you’re squeamish about violence and gore, I promise it’s okay to skip it and just experience its influence in movies like Us.

For further study: Let The Right One In (2008), El Orfanato (2007)