Fear is a strange sensation. It has so much power because the unknown is a scary place, but once things are known, that fear just floats away and you feel silly for feeling it.
Nope is writer/director/producer Jordan Peele’s third feature film. His first film Get Out was amazing, while his second film Us didn’t hit the same heights. This film Nope feels very similar to M. Night Shyamalan’s third effort Signs, both films turn to the horror genre focusing on the potential for UFOs.
I recently had a big moment of fear/slightly continuing to have this experience. A cute girl at the gym has been staring at me, however, I am quite shy, so approaching her is terrifying.
Nope centers on OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his family that has raised and trained horses for the film industry for generations. The Haywood claim to fame is that the first person captured on film was their distant relative and OJ’s sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) will let you know about it.
Fear is strange, going to talk to someone shouldn’t make you feel so nervous, it is not really that we are afraid of the person, but giving our attention to someone who doesn’t want it, it feels shameful.
OJ feels the shame of having to sell his prized horses after his father is mysteriously killed by a falling coin from the sky. Their ranch has had many metal objects drop onto recently. Peele does a great job of building the dread, the ominous feeling that something bad is going to happen to OJ and Emerald.
And dread I felt when I finally got the courage to say hello to gym girl. It was an emotionally draining moment. I saw her come into the gym, I was in the right space to “bump” into her, now or never.
OJ is selling his horses to Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (Steven Yuen), a former child star who was involved in a show where the chimp went crazy and killed many of Park’s fellow actors. Emerald doesn’t want to give away any of her father’s horses. While this is happening more and more strange things are happening around the ranch. Power outages are happening, cars stopping, and creepy things happening. They go to an electronic shop and get help from Angel (Brandon Perea) to set up cameras all around the ranch to record what is happening.
Approaching the gym girl and having her go from looking at me to looking past me wasn’t a good sign, I was so nervous, my hands were shaking, I got close enough to her and I said hello….
Nope has many funny moments, which makes sense with Peele’s background in comedy. It masterfully builds tension and was truly an uncomfortable watch for most of the run time. Ratcheting up the tension, building glimpses of the unknown, laying little seeds in your mind of what might be there, it was very scary.
She didn’t break stride and barely looked at me, she said hey and kept on walking as if I wasn’t there. All my fear was sort of pointless, it was a completely underwhelming ending to all the intrigue I felt with this person looking at me all the time. Similar to Nope, once you know what the thing is, it isn’t scary anymore and is sort of a disappointment.
By Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe
16th August 2022