Foreshadowing aside, the s*** really hits the fan in “Us” when Adelaide and her family are about to go to sleep at their beach house, only for a group of four shadowy individuals to appear in their driveway holding hands. It turns out these creepy intruders are actually the doppelgängers of Adelaide and her family, a group that calls themselves “the Tethered.” Yet, even before this information is relayed to Adelaide and, in turn, those watching the movie, Peele quietly ramps up the suspense through his direction. 

He broke down his approach for The New York Times, explaining:

“This is the point in the movie where I want the terror to really kick into a new gear for the audience. One of the techniques that I utilized to get that terror was that all of a sudden we go into real time. The movie before this has been going from some time dashes here and there. When we get into this moment where the four family members are standing holding hands outside, then we go into this sort of fluid — we use a lot of the Steadicam with very few edits. Really trying to subliminally signal to the audience that this sort of relentless, real time event has begun and is taking place.”