Lupita Nyong’o Is Unbelievably Terrifying in the Poster for Jordan Peele’s Us
Scary movies are one thing, scary movie posters are another that might not have even existed before Lupita Nyong’o suited up for the one advertising Jordan Peele‘s next horror film, Us. In the poster, which the director unleashed on Twitter today, Nyong’o is positively terrifying. Between her painfully open eye with a stream of tears and the mask of her face that overlaps the real thing, there is something truly unsettling about the poster. “Watch yourself coming soon,” it reads, adding to the overall creepiness.
While the concept of posing behind a mask replica of your own face isn’t a new one — as some Twitter users were quick to note, citing the artwork for Keyshia Cole’s 2012 album Woman to Woman and a promotional photo of Mo’Nique that was predates that — Nyong’o just gave the most compelling take on it thus far.
“Lupita Nyong’o is giving a better performance in THIS POSTER than most actors will give in their entire careers,” noted one Twitter user, while another echoed that, writing, :And the winner for Best Performance in a film poster goes to @Lupita_Nyongo for @UsMovie written and directed by @JordanPeele ✂️ #UsMovie.”
While others pinpointed what exactly is so unnerving about it: “The thing that gets me about this poster is that eye shared between lupita and the mask. That literally makes the whole poster. I love it and whoever designed this poster.”
Meanwhile, some people dwelled on how scary the actual movie must be with a poster this frightening. “I’ve never been more ready to be traumatized in my life,” one Twitter user wrote, as another questioned, “We’re not gonna be okay after seeing this, are we?”
Probably not, if the game-changing Get Out was any indication. The description of the film is likewise terrifying. Taking place in our current time, the monsters in Us are doppelgängers of he main characters, which come to haunt them when they take a family vacation to their beach house on the Northern California coastline. Nyong’o plays Adelaide Wilson who is married to Gabe (Black Panther’s Winston Duke) and the mother of two children played by Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex. “Haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past and compounded by a string of eerie coincidences, Adelaide feels her paranoia elevate to high-alert as she grows increasingly certain that something bad is going to befall her family,” the film’s official synopsis reads. “After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), Adelaide and her family return to their vacation home. When darkness falls, the Wilsons discover the silhouette of four figures holding hands as they stand in the driveway. Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.”
Thankfully we have over a month to mentally prepare for Us, as it doesn’t hit theaters until March 15. You’ve been warned.
