All The Classic Horror Easter Eggs In 'Us' Even The Biggest Fans Missed

Eagle-eyed horror fans probably noticed the boardwalk amusement park in Us looked familiar and were able to quickly ascertain it was the same location used in the 1987 vampire classic The Lost Boys. But more than this, the Joel Schumacher-directed film actually makes a sort-of cameo in Us.

Us writer/director Jordan Peele explained the sneaky reference to Uproxx:

It’s the same beach, it’s the same amusement park. And it’s even 1986... there is a reference to The Lost Boys shooting by the carousel. They’re walking down the Santa Monica boardwalk and the mother says, "You know they’re shooting a movie over there by the carousel."

That's right - while young Adelaide endures her bickering parents and ultimately finds her sinister double, Red, in a hall of mirrors, Schumacher and company - including Corey Feldman and Corey Haim - are busy making The Lost Boys nearby.

Whenever a filmmaker delves into the world of doppelgängers and diabolical doubles, they are usually aware of the leader of all doppelgänger narratives: the novella The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, adapted for the screen four times, twice under the title Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Jordan Peele pays explicit homage to the 1978 version of the narrative directed by Philip Kaufman by having the Tethered wear red jumpsuits and single brown leather driving gloves. This outfit is almost identical to the clothing worn by Leonard Nimoy in Kaufman's film. Nimoy plays Dr. David Kibner in Body Snatchers, a character that, like Adelaide, is revealed to have been "one of them" all along. 

In Us's first scene, a flashback set in 1986, we see several VHS tapes on the media shelf of Adelaide's childhood home. One video is the perennial '80s kid favorite The Goonies. While an expert choice for set dressing given the film's popularity, the placement of this tape is also a clever hint at the plot to come. The Goonies involves a group of kids traversing miles of underground tunnels and passages in hopes of solving the mystery of One-Eyed Willie's missing gold.

Fittingly, Us also features mysterious, labyrinthine tunnels, though instead of treasure at the end of the maze, protagonist Adelaide only finds pain, suffering, and a diabolical plot of world domination.

Also, as Jordan Peele has noted, he borrowed one of the most memorable lines from The Goonies: "It's our time now."

The young boy in Us is named Jason, and Jason feels braver when he wears a vacuform werewolf mask. Whenever Jason dispatches one of the Tethered, he has to put on his mask because covering his true face helps him cope with his actions. Jason's doppelgänger, Pluto (named for the Roman god of the underworld), also wears a mask, though his is made of cloth and conceals a disfigurement. Pluto does not speak, but instead makes animalistic grunts and can be quite temperamental when provoked.

If this all sounds familiar, that's because the combined situations of the two boys in Us form the basic origin story of '80s slasher icon Jason Voorhees, as first established in Friday the 13th Part 2. If Voorhees didn't already appear to be an obvious influence, the boys' mothers, Adelaide and Red, are both willing to do whatever it takes to protect their sons, which echoes the actions of Pamela Voorhees, Jason's demented mother.

The Sixth Sense features perhaps the most famous twist ending in all of cinema, the reveal that Bruce Willis's character, Malcolm Crowe, is one of the ghosts little Cole (Haley Joel Osmet) can see throughout the narrative. Us also features a twist: The seemingly heroic Adelaide was one of the villains all along.

In both cases, the plot reveals shed new light on our understanding of the characters and their narrative arcs. In the case of M. Night Shyamalan's film, the twist, while shocking, is also healing and cathartic for Malcolm, who can finally move on to the afterlife proper; in Jordan Peele's film, the twist is far more foreboding and sinister.

Both Jennifer Kent's debut feature, The Babadook, and Jordan Peele's Us feature mothers slowly transforming into more animalistic and vicious figures as the narrative progresses. In Kent's film, this transformation occurs by way of unchecked grief and trauma, turning the protagonist, Amelia (Essie Davis), from a frazzled woman at her wit's end to a knife-wielding maniac possessed by the titular boogie man.

In Peele's case, his main character, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o), grows more and more vicious as she protects her family against the malicious Tethered, so much so that, in one key scene, her son Jason (Evan Alex) can't tell whether Adelaide is his real mother or her doppelgänger, Red. Of course, it turns out Adelaide has been one of the Tethered all along, a chilling ending that stands in stark contrast to the happier denouement of The Babadook.