Review of Nope (2022) by Rebecca31 — 14 Aug 2022

Well Jordan Peele has done it again with another terrific horror to add to his ever growing collection. If you loved Get Out and Us then be sure to get yourselves to the largest cinema screen possible to see Nope. As always this is a spoiler free review, however, the less you know about Nope before seeing it the better.

OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer) are horse trainers on a ranch in inland California. They begin experiencing strange and unexplainable occurrences and decide to do some further investigation. The trailer gives you a pretty good indicator to where this movie is going but honestly regarding the plot the less you know the better. The same can be said for all Jordan Peele movies so I’d suggest you try to see Nope with as little information as possible. Peele has expertly blended genres here with Nope, it’s first and foremost a horror as there are scenes that are indeed chilling and will stay with you long after the movie has ended. Yet it’s also a sci-fi movie and a western. That’s three genres you don’t normally see combined together very often, especially like this, but the results speak for themselves.

There’s strong influences from other sci-fi movies and Summer blockbusters, Jaws immediately comes to mind. Particularly when it comes to building up to the spectacle, you’re not sure what you’re dealing with right away and you won’t be shown anything before you need to be. Nope immediately presents you with a hair-raising scene, and from that moment on, the suspense builds before it unleashes the chaos. So yes it’s a little slow to build but I promise the payoff will be worth it. You’re put on edge and kept there while the film follows a similar formula of other great blockbusters, constantly building the suspense. At times it almost feels nostalgic with reminders from other great sci-fi and horror movies along with some real life horrors mixed in there too. At the same time it’s very much it’s own thing and brings some much needed originality to the horror genre.

Again Peele gathers an ensemble cast of great actors, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun and Brandon Perea, with the stand out performances being Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as the Haywood siblings. It’s a small cast, which gives plenty of time to get to know the characters and more importantly care about them. Newer horrors seem to be continually falling into the same trap of endless disposable characters just there to be killed, whereas less characters with actual character development is far more effective and when things start going wrong you’re actually invested in what happens to them. They are well written, likeable and more importantly believable characters that react the way you’d expect when the weird stuff starts happening, much to the delight of the audience. Nothing beats seeing a terrific blockbuster in a packed cinema enjoying every minute of it.

I probably sound like a broken record at this point but we’re living in a time where the majority of films nowadays follow the same formula, and you end up seeing the same thing over and over again. Original ideas are always harder to get the green light so I’m always happy to see something new whether I liked it or not. In the case of Nope, I loved it and I’m still thinking about it. If we’re talking favourites, I’d still choose Get Out as my favourite but Nope is a close second.

Jordan Peele is a director who has a clear vision for his movies and you’re always guaranteed something new. Nope is no exception. You’ll jump, squirm and laugh. It balances humour and horror together while experimenting with genres and showing you something you haven’t seen before. To sum it up, it’s a horror/sci-fi/western infused blockbuster that I urge all of you to see. Highly recommended for the Jordan Peele and horror fans.