Us (2019)★★★☆☆

I struggle a bit on rating this one. It has all these fantastic elements of a really good horror movie - a stellar cast, an understated and well-placed score, a unique and interesting premise, and yet…for me it’s just too. long.

(Many spoilers ahead) Seriously, the Tethered are creepy! The idea that there’s a whole underground world (country?) of resentful clones just waiting for their moment to take over? Terrifying. And yet, we get most of that explanation pretty early on, which means the bulk of the movie is focused on the actual physical struggle between the two groups.

And I just couldn’t get into those parts of it. I kept wanting to walk away from the screen during extended fight (or flight) sequences. The scenes where the Tethered take over quickly and absolutely are great - as is the final showdown (including the lead-up to it by the cars). The rest just felt too slow.

Really, the story is so interesting! I think for me, the film just focused too much on the wrong parts to be as scary or as great as it could have been. With a tighter cut, I think I’d probably rate it significantly higher.