Nope

Review

This movie really lives up to the Jordan Peele hype. Honestly I wasn’t super interested in this movie because I had heard it was less horror based but honestly it still had some extremely effective horror elements. It definitely had the Jordan Peele cerebral feel and I definitely need to read some different interpretations of the meaning.

This movie is about a black-run horse ranch where strange things are happening. Horses going missing and strange power drops leads the main character, OJ, to go outside and see that the perpetrator is a strange flying object and he comes to the conclusion that it’s an alien. After this, OJ and his sister, Emerald, become determined to catch the alien on camera eventually recruiting tech shop employee Angel accidentally. While this is happening the Haywood’s next door neighbor Jupe is trying to monetize seeing the creature for his western amusement park, which ends up getting him and his entire audience eaten. The movie ends with the characters challenging the alien in order to get the ‘Oprah Shot’ which ends with them getting the shot and killing the alien.

I think this movie is very disturbing, I think the scenes involving Gordy were especially horrifying. There’s something about his scenes that are so grounded in reality, especially considering it is based on a real life incident, which make it all the more horrifying to watch. The moment where he notices Jupe under the table is very suspenseful, even though we know that he survives, after seeing the brutality of the attack you can’t help but be scared that we’re about to witness a child being beat to death.

I really appreciated the message throughout the movie about the exploitation of animals and people of color. Each time you watch the movie you become more aware of the subtext pointing to this exploitation. From the moment the movie starts, having everyone ignoring the horses needs and being dismissive towards OJ, you can get a sense of what Jordan Peele wants you to take away from this movie and how you should look to interpret a lot of his choices. It makes it especially disheartening when people claim this movie is bad or that it doesn’t have good subtext when the movie places paths to find those choices right in front of you. At that point it ends up being a matter of media literacy.

The setting of the movie was a really interesting choice, everything that happens in the movie feels so isolated and as they’re being stalked by this alien you know that they realistically don’t have any other options in the most high intensity moments, because where are they going to run? It raises the stakes and makes the intense moments all the more intense.

I think the only issues I had was that one scene with Jupe’s kids which was just scary for the sake of being scary and it didn’t really fit the vibe and the horror of the rest of the movie. I also wasn’t a big fan of the cinematography character but I think that that’s more down to personal preference, I just thought that he was a little overly cryptic for me and I wasn’t a big fan of him.

I really loved the design and the horror of Jean Jacket. Especially when it’s attacking in the end it’s very gorgeous in the most horrifying way and it almost evokes the image of a biblical angel and I remember the first time I saw it’s attacking form and I was absolutely captivated and mesmerized while also being horrified and praying that the characters made it out alive.

The final act for this film is one of the best final acts in a horror film. It was high intensity, beautifully shot, and very emotional not knowing which characters are dead and alive. The moment when Emerald gets the Oprah shot it’s one of the most gratifying moment I’ve seen on film. I really loved this movie and I think it was a stellar example of all that Jordan Peele is capable of in his films.