After more than three years, this horror gem from directing genius Jordan Peele is on free TV for the first time. We tell you when to tune in and most importantly, why.
In just five years, Jordan Peele has become one of the most influential directors of our time. Until 2017, he was known primarily as a comedy writer and performer. Then he brought Get Out to cinemas and that changed everything. Peele has since delivered 3 films, with his sci-fi horror Nope starting this summer. Three years ago, his second film We was released and that’s playing on free TV for the first time today.
This is what Jordan Peele’s We is about
Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) and Gabe Wilson (Winston Duke) travel to an idyllic beach house with their two children, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex), to get some distance from their stressful daily lives. But a cosy evening turns into a surreal horror when uninvited guests appear in the driveway: four mysterious strangers who resemble the Wilsons to a tee. The doppelgangers show no mercy when it comes to eliminating the family. Can the Wilson family save themselves from themselves and where do the mysterious burglars actually come from?
Why is We such an extraordinary and great horror film?
The scene in which the doppelgangers:inside take up residence in the family’s living room and the counterparts pattern their striking similarities is one of the creepiest in recent years. Jordan Peele himself said of his concept:
” […] We live in a time when we fear the Other. The mysterious intruder who takes over our jobs. Or the faction that assumes we don’t live near those who voted differently. We point the finger at everything. Maybe the monster we have to look at has our face. Maybe we are the evil one. […] “
The essence of the gloomy copies is characterised by something animal and coarse. They look like a drawing of a human being that has been washed over by water. And of course they are hostile. We turns from a home invasion horror into a slasher, only the doppelgangers:inside are hunting each other.
The film is slow to explain the origin of the creatures, nor does it do so definitively. Only this much: they come from naked misery. The motives of this horror film are therefore not revenge or fear of death, but much more complex: repression, descent, exchange and biting envy. Who has the right to a life of harmony and comfort?
