Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Madison Curry, Elisabeth Moss

Directed by Jordan Peele

Universal, out now

1986: a young girl wanders off into an amusement park’s hall of mirrors where she finds herself… but it’s not a reflection. Present day, the girl has returned to hunt her down, and she’s brought her family with her.

One of the strongest sensations I felt in watching Jordan Peele’s follow-up to his sensational 2016 Oscar-winning Get Out is that the new version of The Twilight Zone is in very safe hands. Like his previous movie, Us understands the value of a strong narrative and has no qualms in leading you down a certain route before pulling the rug out from under you.

It’s very tricky to say much more about the story than I have above without spoiling the carefully crafted plot. I’m not even sure if it’s a better or worse film than Get Out, beyond saying that it’s very different and demonstrates that Peele is no one-trick pony. Throughout the movie you grasp onto what’s unfolding before you and then rationalise what it is – family drama, home invasion, horror, black comedy, thriller – but it steadfastly refuses to be pigeonholed.

Lupita Nyong’o (Star Wars, Black Panther) is excellent as matriarch Adelaide Wilson, still suffering from anxiety over 30 years after the traumatic incident that changed her life. So too is Madison Curry who plays the young Adelaide, and she gains top marks for the sheer look of terror on her face. Winston Duke (Black Panther) is the father Gabe Wilson, who, like a lot of the men in this movie is a little shallow and sketched thinly, but it’s Nyongo’s movie all the way (both versions of her).

Verdict: The sheer inventiveness and unwillingness to play to genre conventions makes Us a thrilling 116 minutes. Repeat viewings will either reveal what you missed first time round, or create even more questions – and when was the last time a mainstream horror movie offered that prospect? Classy, adult, sophisticated, fantasy film-making… and a little bit scary too. 9/10

Nick Joy