When 1999's Sixth Sense came out, it made a star of its director, M Night Shyamalan. His reputation soared, but the American newcomer's stock plummeted from there, and he was never able to make a film as good as that again.
Get Out, from Jordan Peele, made a similar star of its rookie director, and while the final portion of the film lost its way a little, the story certainly got under our skin.
Sadly, the follow up, Us, is a bit of a comparative fail and struggles to secure the credibility its director's debut managed. Sounding familiar.
Trying to follow up a major and unexpected hit like Get Out was never going to be easy, but Peele really has dropped the bomb here, and made a duffer.
To sum Us up, little girl goes through trauma, and then as an adult her family are attacked by a group of four people who look exactly like them.
For the first portion of the story, it manages to be interesting - it's intriguing, what happened to her, what has she grown into now, how does she deal with the past.
But then the bad guys show up, and way too is given to the viewer on a plate, and while the story is certainly intentionally funny at times, it fails as both a horror and a psychological thriller.
It just doesn't work, and manages, in fact, to be boring in major areas - and sadly the twist ending is a diabolical mess and is guilty of the 'Scott Shelby Fallacy' (players of Heavy Rain will get this one).
I just didn't buy any of this, and after such a strong debut, I can only presume Peele tried too hard and tripped over his own ego. Frankly some of the content in this was completely idiotic.
It's not the worst movie of all time, but it's a poor follow up to such a strong first film, and it makes me very wary indeed of Candyman.
Hmmmm.
Get Out, from Jordan Peele, made a similar star of its rookie director, and while the final portion of the film lost its way a little, the story certainly got under our skin.
Sadly, the follow up, Us, is a bit of a comparative fail and struggles to secure the credibility its director's debut managed. Sounding familiar.
Trying to follow up a major and unexpected hit like Get Out was never going to be easy, but Peele really has dropped the bomb here, and made a duffer.
To sum Us up, little girl goes through trauma, and then as an adult her family are attacked by a group of four people who look exactly like them.
For the first portion of the story, it manages to be interesting - it's intriguing, what happened to her, what has she grown into now, how does she deal with the past.
But then the bad guys show up, and way too is given to the viewer on a plate, and while the story is certainly intentionally funny at times, it fails as both a horror and a psychological thriller.
It just doesn't work, and manages, in fact, to be boring in major areas - and sadly the twist ending is a diabolical mess and is guilty of the 'Scott Shelby Fallacy' (players of Heavy Rain will get this one).
I just didn't buy any of this, and after such a strong debut, I can only presume Peele tried too hard and tripped over his own ego. Frankly some of the content in this was completely idiotic.
It's not the worst movie of all time, but it's a poor follow up to such a strong first film, and it makes me very wary indeed of Candyman.
Hmmmm.