Always tough following up on a breakout pic. Especially after the commercial, critical, award-winning success writer Jordan Peele had surfing the Zeitgeist in his directing debut, GET OUT/’17. Pic #2 tries adding family values to a standard-issue doppelgänger creepathon, offering a variation on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS that feels less reimagined by Peele than co-opted from something M. Night Shyamalan passed on, missing the technical polish & kinetic feel for action Night is able to deliver before throwing a wet blanket over his big, empty ideas. Peele does manage a cheap Shymalanian you-saw-it-coming twist ending that makes mincemeat of everything we've already seen, as well as employing an increasingly comic tone in the third act after noticing that the film isn’t working as planned. Hardly a decent scare in the pic, with the appearance and attack of all those soulless underworld doubles less mysterious than the abundant box-office and largely favorable reviews. Sophomore jinx, anyone?
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Stick with GET OUT before this sours it for you. OR: The original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS/’56, still causing nightmares 60+ years on.
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