extra reading 4

Case study and analysis of the movie “US” and why is it successful showing the meaning behind each details

Why is it so successful? / What’s so interesting?

- Although the movie is not as disgusting or bloody as other horror movie, but the place setting, the atmosphere in the movie is so real and frightening

- It’s seems like a peaceful horror movie, but you can feel the horror

- I think the part that makes people feel so real and horror is because the actors too, the face expressions, the same movement of each character 

- It horror in a way that not the usual horror movie that kind of horror

- The writer puts in a lot of hidden messages where it makes the whole movie interesting and strange , mysterious

Hidden messages

1. The movie name : US

It’s actually telling the meaning behind this name, which is the United States. In the movie, someone asked the girl, who are you? She said, We are americans. It actually wanted to reflect the society of us, the differences between the poor and the rich. The treats are very bad to the poor, they live like in hell. And the government is not taking actions.

2. Scissors

Scissors are like us, u n me.the right and left handle, standing opposite of each other. When the scissors knives are merged, it will become a sharp tool, causing them to harm each other. It’s like the U.S society where all the people are harming each other. 

3. Rabbit

Rabbit is so much seen on the other side where the prisoners are at. It means the government is actually doing some experiment. First, they used the experiment on the rabbits. Then they feel it’s successful so they change their experiment target to human, where they are the one who no one cares about. After the government realizes it’s failed they lock all of the people and rabbits down at the “hell”, the life is worse. Meaning also, sarcasm of the government of US, don't give a damn to the poor and only keep feeding the rich ones

4. Costume

The director used beautiful dresses and outfits on the normal family, but on the other side of the world, people there all in the “prison” look costume. It is to sarcasm the U.S government, taking the poor and the black as the slaves. It’s like they are the prisoners, no freedom, no life as the costume of the prisoner looks like what they wore in the movie.

5. Hand in hand march

Hands Across America occurred on Sunday, May 25, 1986. Approximately $6.5 million people held hands for fifteen minutes in order to form a human chain across America. The event was created to donate money to charities that aided the hungry and homeless. When Red tells Adelaide the story of her life, she begins with “Once upon a time…,” obscuring the normalcy of the Wilsons’ lives with the fact their “fairy tale” has left a family, a population, entirely in the shadows. That has always been the story of modern America, a desire to be better or “Make America Great Again,” while ignoring the fact that it never was and that the country was built on the backs of suffering and slaughtered people. But we like to think in terms of American innocence and heroism all the same. Red preys upon the notion of American innocence, of how even our best attempts to live lives without conflict or in service of some subjective greater good position is above others.

6. 11:11

The number 11:11 crops up in a variety of ways. Jeremiah 11:11 is seen on a homeless man’s placard way back in 1986. Taken from the King James edition of the Bible, the verse harbours a foreboding deeper meaning in the wider context of the film: “Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.” Decreed as a warning to Babylonian Jews for the sin of idolatry, this notion of righteous vengeance for trespasses would resonate with Red after her place in the world was snatched away by her tethered imposter.

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References

Fairy, 2019. 惊悚恐怖电影《US/我们》深度解析，当恶人混在人世，当魔术以假乱真，他们就是我们。. [online] Bilibili.com. Available at: <https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv2752472/> [Accessed 16 May 2020].

SAVANNAH DI LEO, 2019. 10 Hidden Meanings In Jordan Peele's Us. [online] ScreenRant. Available at: <https://screenrant.com/jordan-peele-us-hidden-meanings/> [Accessed 16 May 2020].

The Hollywood Reporter. 2019. Looking At 'Us' Through Black Identity And Trump's America. [online] Available at: <https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/us-movies-hidden-meaning-black-identity-explained-1196687> [Accessed 16 May 2020].

Pham, J., 2019. Every Hidden Meaning You Missed From ‘Us’. [online] StyleCaster. Available at: <https://stylecaster.com/us-hidden-meanings-explained/> [Accessed 16 May 2020].

Nicole Raucheisen and Meredith Geaghan-Breiner, 2019. All The Hidden Messages You Missed At The End Of Jordan Peele's New Movie 'Us'. [online] Insider. Available at: <https://www.insider.com/us-ending-jordan-peele-new-movie-explained-2019-3> [Accessed 16 May 2020].

Robert Blair, 2019. "Us" Decoded: Hidden Meanings & Messages In Jordan Peele's Blockbuster. [online] HotNewHipHop. Available at: <https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/us-decoded-hidden-meanings-and-messages-in-jordan-peeles-blockbuster-news.75460.html> [Accessed 16 May 2020].