VOA慢速英语--乔丹·皮尔的恐怖电影《我们》

Jordan Peele's Horror Movies Are About Us

Jordan Peele is an African American filmmaker. His newest movie, "Us," is the second-most popular movie released in 2019 so far. The first movie he directed, "Get Out," won an Academy Award in 2018. Critics and movie watchers say the black horror films that he creates show us examples of social, economic and racial injustice¹.

"Us" explores the monster hiding within ourselves in the form of the evil doppelganger, or double.

Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o plays two characters in "Us." One is Adelaide Wilson, a middle-class mother and wife. The other character is Red, her troubling double.

Nyong'o says that her character, Adelaide, cannot explain the trouble she faced in her childhood, but it still causes problems for her. The character thinks that something bad is going to happen at the family's summer home. Her feelings come true when four people appear at the house and terrible events begin.

Peele says his work uses the idea of the shadow self:

"..which comes up in many cultures, many mythologies². And it tends to be this sense that there is a darker self that we suppress³, and we suppress it because we are afraid of what it means. It holds our guilts, and our evil."

Peele said the horror movies permit him to talk about race relations and the growing social and economic divisions in America. His earlier horror film "Get Out" was about wealthy, old white people extending their lives by having their brains moved into young black people.

"Us" is about how poor Americans relate to wealthier Americans.

Sean McKittrick is a producer of "Us." "It's more about what we've become as a country," he said, and shows punishment for how people act to each other. It is "all centered around how a family deals with being attacked by themselves."

Nyong'o said that often:

"We feel that the monster is from outside of ourselves, they're from outside our borders, and you know, and outside our homes. But in this story, the monster is really within our very selves, and it's about embracing that or at least recognizing it."

Minority actors in lead roles

Horror film expert Andrew Scahill said Peele represents black horror movies today.

"I think we are at an incredibly exciting time for horror right now."

For example, in George Romero's famous 1968 horror movie "Night of Living Dead," the monsters killed black actors within the first 10 minutes or the black actors stayed alive long enough to save white leading characters.

Now, he said, Peele includes black actors as the main characters who are here to stay.

"Jordan Peele does not plan on casting a white actor in a lead role from here on out because that movie has been done."

Young people's worries

Scahill said the idea of ‘the monster within’ is very old and so is using horror to talk about social issues.

Scahill added that in the horror films young people are making today, the actors cannot easily identify the deadly force or control it.

He said the ideas we find in "Us" suggest that young people worry about losing control of their social, economic and environmental well-being⁴. In addition, they have trouble trying to change the system.

Peele is involved in another project, an update of a 1960s television series, The Twilight⁵ Zone. This series is on the CBS web-streaming service. Peele is the host of the series and tells the stories as a narrator. The Rotten Tomatoes movie rating⁶ website says, "The Twilight Zone explores the strangeness of the modern world."

I’m Jill Robbins.

Words in This Story

horror - adj. intended to cause feelings of fear, dread⁷, and shock

monster - n. a powerful person or thing that cannot be controlled and that causes many problems

doppelganger– n. someone who looks like someone else; a double; in literature, an "evil twin"

characters - n. a person who appears in a story, book, play, movie, or television show

cast - v. to assign roles for (a play or movie) to actors

host - n. a person who talks to guests on a television or radio show

narrator n. a person who says the words that describe what is being seen or heard as part of a movie or television show

1 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

2 mythologies   

神话学( mythology的名词复数 )； 神话（总称）； 虚构的事实； 错误的观点

参考例句：

• a study of the religions and mythologies of ancient Rome 关于古罗马的宗教和神话的研究
• This realization is enshrined in "Mythologies." 这一看法见诸于他的《神话集》一书。

3 suppress   

vt.压制，镇压，查禁，抑制，阻止

参考例句：

• He continued to suppress the people and serve the imperialists.他继续镇压人民，为帝国主义效劳。
• She was struggling to suppress her sobs.她拼命不让自己哭出来。

4 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

5 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

6 rating   

n.级别，等级，额定值，责骂，收视率

参考例句：

• It is a ship with a rating of 500,000 tons.这是一艘五十万吨级的船。
• The opinion polls gave the president a high rating.民意测验显示人民对总统的支持率很高。

7 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。