Netflix Thriller "Behind Her Eyes" and Jordan Peele's Movies are Strikingly Similar

Jordan Peele’s movies Get Out and Us are known for featuring black protagonists and prominent black characters. Along with its eye-opening final twists and the creepy, sinister smiles that make me quake in my boots. Both of Peele's horror masterpieces explore themes of family and stolen identity, along with the subtle touch of supernatural to keep it relatable and a horrific experience for the audience. All these aspects make a good, horrifying Jordan Peele movie.

In Get Out, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) who is a photographer goes on a weekend trip with his partner Rose (Allison William) to meet her family and discovers a dark secret behind the family’s rather exaggerated warm gesture. Themes of stolen identity turn up when Chris finds out Rose’s family runs a transplant operation that inserts the brains of the white people into black bodies. The identity of the black characters in the film is stolen and inhabited by the rich white folks.

But their consciousness is trapped in the “Sunken Place"— the supernatural aspect of the film. The sunken place is an endless void where the brainwashed people still have their consciousness intact but trapped. Later, Chris falls into the Sunken Place, screaming and watching things unfold before him, without being able to take action of his own body. Another supernatural aspect is the Camera Flash, which triggers the trapped consciousness of the brainwashed people to act out.

Elements of the supernatural and stolen identity make another appearance in Peele’s thriller movie Us. The horror film follows Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o), a peculiarly quiet black woman heading on a vacation to Santa Cruz with her husband and children. We get a deep look at the traumatic childhood of Adelaide and her quiet and reserved self, remarkably played by actress Nyong'o. On their first night, a family of four attacks them, and the Wilson family discover they are their doublegangers who are known as Tethered. The Tethered are soulless, mute people dressed in red jumpsuits who are exact replicas of the people on earth. They were forced to live underground after a failed experiment, and have escaped to revenge and protest for their rights on earth.

But what’s more interesting is that something horrible happened to Adelaide at a young age. When her family took her on a family trip to the Santa Cruz boardwalk, Adelaide had wandered to a Shaman’s Vision Quest Mirror Maze and had her identity stolen by her tethered counterpart. Meaning the protagonist herself is a Tethered, and throughout the whole film, we’ve been watching the story from the perspective of the copy Adelaide. This becomes evident in the final scene of the film, when Adelaide holds an eerie smile, displaying the tethered side of her that’s still alive.

To all Jordan Peele fans out there, if Us and Get Out blew you out of your mind, you don’t have to wait until Peele releases another gruesome thriller. There’s a new British psychological thriller Behind Her Eyes which just premiered on Netflix in February 2021 and it embodies many of Jordan Peele's aspects to it. As I was watching it, I couldn't help but draw conspicuous parallels between the Tv series and Jordan Peele's horror films.

The psychological thriller, created by Steve Lightfoot and based on the novel by Sarah Punborough, depicts the life of a single black mother who is still covering from a divorce and itches for the thrill of a romantic adventure. She comes across a handsome Scottish man David (Tom Bateman), who happens to be her new boss at the psychiatry clinic she works at and befriends his mysterious wife Adele (Eve Hewson). Soon, she finds herself trapped in an irresistible love triangle. You know that typical love triangle trope? But through each episode, the Jordan Peele feel about the TV series becomes more and more vivid. The uneasy feeling. The supernatural. The dark secret. The big revelation. All in all.

The Tv series also infuses reality with the supernatural. As Louise becomes deeply involved with this mysterious couple, she learns revelations about the supernatural— astral projection—and very dark secrets behind David’s wife. Lucid dreaming also plays a significant role in the TV series. Aside from featuring a character of color as the protagonist, the psychological thriller explores themes of family just like a typical Jordan Peele movie. Louise's struggle as a single mother plays a significant role in the story, as she tries to balance being there for her young son Adam (Tyler Howitt) while trying to mingle and heal from a divorce.

Now, I’ve tried my best to express how similar Jordan Peele’s movies are to this new Netflix thriller without giving much or revealing any big spoilers about Behind Her Eyes (Hope I didn’t leak anything). If you’ve watched both of Jordan Peele’s films Get Out and Us and are digging to watch a similar psychological thriller that will give you the Heebie-Jeebies, the new Netflix hit Behind Her Eyes is the most reliable course of action. You can thank me later!

Works-cited

“Behind Her Eyes.” Behind Her Eyes, season 1, episode 6, www.netflix.com/watch/81089021

Peele, Jordan. Get Out. Universal Pictures, 2017.

Peele, Jordan. Us. Universal Pictures, 2019.

Lightfoot, Steve, creator. Behind Her Eyes, 2021. Netflix, www.netflix.com.