Movies
Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Has a Really Fun Easter Egg Connection to ‘The Lost Boys’
As you probably spotted in the trailers, Jordan Peele’s Us partially filmed on the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California, which memorably played the role of the fictional town of Santa Carla in The Lost Boys. In fact, there’s a portion of Peele’s new nightmare that takes place in 1986, and you’ll want to pay close attention to catch a fun nod to the ’87 vampire classic.
“We shot in Santa Cruz and the first scene of our movie is there,” Peele explained to Uproxx this week. “It’s the same beach, it’s the same amusement park. And it’s even 1986.”
He continues, “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.’”
Yes, what Peele is saying here is that the 1986-set events of Us are taking place at the very same time Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys is being filmed at the very same location!
Peele’s Us (read our review) arrives in theaters TONIGHT.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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