Us (3 Stars)

When Adelaide was a child she went on holiday to Santa Cruz with her family. She wandered alone into a hall of mirrors, where she met a doppelganger of herself. It wasn't a reflection in a mirror, as grown ups are quick to explain, it was a real person in front of herself.

Flash forward to the present. She's married with two children, Zora and Jason. Her husband persuades her to take a vacation in Santa Cruz. They have a pleasant beach home, maybe the same one that belonged to her parents. At night four strangers appear outside their house, dressed in red overalls and carrying golden scissors. On closer inspection they see that the strangers are their doppelgangers. With the exception of Adelaide's doppelganger they're mute. Even though they can't speak it's obvious what they want: they want to kill Adelaide and her family, stabbing them to death with their scissors.

They escape, and it soon becomes apparent that it's not just about them. Millions of doppelgangers in red suits are causing havoc all across the south of the USA. But there's still the question why Adelaide's doppelganger is the only one who can speak.

When the film started I was amazed by the atmosphere. The tension and the feeling of dread were perfect. The jump scares weren't over-used, and they always seemed well placed. As the film continued I began to get frustrated. It all seemed like random violence without any explanation. I wanted to find out what it was about. Finally the explanations came, but they weren't given by clues, it was just talking to tell us what had happened. This seemed cheap. I prefer to be able to work out explanations for myself. But a further problem is that the explanations weren't complete. I won't repeat them here to avoid spoilers, I'll just say that they left questions open.

Despite the atmosphere, it's an unsatisfying film. It has so many ideas that could have been presented better.