Lupita's List (Part Two)

Hi, I'm back. Before I start talking about the movies I just wanted to say thank you to the kind people that reached out during this hard time in my life. I finally feel like I know who my real friends are, and I feel like I'm at a point in my life where I'm just over certain people. I'm no longer chasing friendships when I already have really good and supportive friends.

Enough of the emotional stuff, let's get back to talking about the movie's Lupita watched before filming US.

It Follows

Y'all wanna talk about an Oscar snub? Ok, that's pushing it; but I feel like It Follows fell under everyone's radar when it's in fact a very good movie. "It" we can assume, is a metaphor for the consequences of sex. However, I think that the relation to "US" is that "It" can take the form of any one "It" feels like.
I already said, I feel like one of Adelaide and Gabriel have a child that has died. I think that Adelaide and Gabe's guilt can be taking the form of themselves. As a mother, if anything happened to my children, I would blame myself. Even if it had nothing to do with me. In the case of Adelaide, Jason, Gabe, Zora, and their friends, I think all of them have some degree of guilt. Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Tyler feel guilty for isolating themselves from Adelaide and Gabe after the death of the other child. But with the main characters, I feel like the tethered version of them can represent the ways they feel guilty. For example, the tethered son has burns on his face and appears to Adelaide in front of a burning car in a "Come at me bro!" stance. He's clearly trying to make her feel bad. And we know this is "normal" Adelaide because her hair is in mini twists instead of "tethered" Adelaide's cute afro.  
Also, none of the "tethered" people have decent eyebrows. Almost as if they got burned TF off in a fiery car accident. I'm not really a fan of the clone theory, but another explanation could be that eyebrows are just hard to duplicate. I struggle with matching my eyeliner wings. So I think making a whole new eyebrow from scratch, and then copying it sounds like a nightmare.I hate the idea of them being clones, because I feel like "The Island/Clonus Horror" type of movies have been done to death. I personally don't like them very much. I want this movie to be a little more original than that. I also consider that kind of stuff science fiction and Peele has already said this movie is a horror movie. 
I feel like their hypothetical older daughter died in a car accident. I think that Adelaide was the driver, which is why "normal" Adelaide does not drive. Another reason I think this is because there is just too much car imagery. Also, this may be a reach, but the fact that the first thing we see is the car decal that establishes that they have four people in their family makes me feel like them being a family of four is not always the case. Simply because, we (the viewer) is taken into the car and can see that they are a family of four. I guess, that could even been another meaning to having them listen to the song "I've got 5 on it." In this case, it's not about weed! Just like the dad said.
 I remember my grandma sending me a copypasta about NOT having that family car decal because it encourages creeps/pedophiles/ect to follow you. I was never going to put any kind of sticker on my car, so I didn't really think about it until making this post. I was like YOOOOO when I made the connection of that and the "tethered" people knowing where the family was, because the lake house is not their normal house. 

In the case of the movie "It Follows", what is following those people is the consequences of sex, which is a common theme in horror movies. Especially teen horror. However, I think what is following the people in "US" is the consequences of unchecked grief. The funny thing is, I remember when I first saw It Follows (I believe it is still on Netflix, I'm remarkably lazy and just bought it on demand instead of opening the Netflix app on my television. Like I said in regard to my guesses about the movie....grief makes you weird!), I was like, this is scary, but it would was the most scary when "It" followed Greg. I really like endings like the one in "It Follows", I hope US ends similarly. I could see Jordan Peele doing that.



A Tale Of Two Sisters
BOIIIII This is actually one of my favorite psychological horror movies. This movie is from South Korea, but there was an American remake called "The Uninvited". I remember kind of liking the American version more than most. Then, I saw A Tale Of Two Sisters and I think that everyone is better off just watching the original movie.

Kind of unrelated, but Lupita Nyong'o speaks a little Korean! I have a lot of respect for her for that. She learned more than what was asked of her for Black Panther. I think learning languages is such a rewarding activity, even if you're not in the position to travel. I still think it is worth your time! You never know who you will meet.
Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how to say I think A Tale of Two Sisters could have helped Lupita prepare for US. It's hard, because these movies have a "shared language" with US. However, man...I really want you guys to watch A Tale of Two Sisters. Because, that was a twist! It's really worth going into the movie not knowing anything about it.  And, you know what? I think US has a similar one.

This movie was based on a folktale called Janghwa Hongryeon jeon (The Story of Janghwa and Hongryeon). Now, when you read the folktale, and see the movie, you can see that they have similar themes but are quite different. I think this is what Peele meant because A Tale Of Two Sisters and US in my mind are alike, but different. I guess were going to have to wait and see if I am right.


The Birds
Right off the bat, I noticed that both movies take place in second best part of California. Also, Luniz, the rap duo that made "I Got 5 On It" is from Oakland. I think this means that Northern California must be somewhat relevant to what's going on. At first, I was like, "well maybe someone has some sort of tie (lol) to Northern California. But, Jordan Peele is from NYC, Lupita is from Mexico, and Winston Duke is from Tobago. So, I think it's more to do with the story that a shout out to someone's heritage.

Literally the only only connection I can think of is that Lupita and Winston were recently in a movie that had the antagonist as a kid from Oakland running around believing in fairy tales. And, I just want Michael B. Jordan in everything I watch because....he's fine. That's literally it. Anyway, Michael B. Jordan is from California. But not Northern California. It would be pretty cool to have MBJ cameo in US. Has he been in a legit horror movie? He should be if not.
While The Birds is a great movie, and deserves a lot of the accolades it has...We can't forget that Hitchcock put Tippi Hendren through absolute hell on and off set. I'm just going to talk about the on set behavior, as I don't think Peele acts like Hitchcock. I don't think he treats women like that and if he did, he wouldn't leave breadcrumbs like this around. If you want to learn about that you can watch the movie "The Girl". On the set of The Birds, they riled up REAL birds. They gave those birds the goodT whiskey to get them to act like that. That would never fly today lol.  Speaking of those evil animals, it's never explained why they went berserk. So, maybe we won't find out why the doppelgangers are attacking the family. I hope they don't go that route because there seems to be a lot of symbolism. I would hate for it all of it to be meaningless. I don't think this is what they are going to do because Hitchcock didn't explain why the birds were acting that way, because then the film would be science fiction and his goal was to make a thriller.
The Birds really captures the feeling of dread. Everything is so slow, but not in a way that makes it boring. It's kind of like Hereditary. Where you know something is about to pop off, and all you can do is wait. That's why I enjoy the ending of The Birds so much. You're left with this heavy feeling of ominous dread.  It kind of fits in with my ideas that I came up with based on the other movies. The Nightmare doesn't end. You just have to learn to live with it.
There are also a lot of point of view shots in The Birds. I personally would love to see things from Adelaide's mind. Or see things the way "tethered" Adelaide sees it.