A Movie Review By Anthony Ritter
Actor, Writer, and Director Jordan Peele’s third horror movie NOPE arrives in theaters this weekend. NOPE is about the Haywood family, who are horse trainers living on a secluded California ranch. A mysterious entity begins being felt at the ranch and seems to be having an effect on both the people and animals. The Haywoods decide they are going to capture this entity on film.
What follows is The Good, The Bad, and The Spoilers of NOPE.
The Good
If you have seen Get Out or US, you know that Peele writes stories that are unique. He does so once again with NOPE. The initial feel of the movie is that it is going to be another creepy movie about aliens. As the story unfolds, it becomes something interestingly different. I felt like I was watching a modern-day interpretation of a folk tale that describes someone’s encounter with things not of the natural world.
Another good point of this movie is the comedic relief. I know that normally comedic relief is not something you necessarily want in a horror movie, but in NOPE it had a way of making the movie more relatable. How many times have you watched a horror movie and thought something like “Don’t go down to the dark basement to investigate the strange noises you just heard”? Some of the funniest parts of the movie play into that, such as when OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) sees something downright creepy and, rather than investigating, says “Nope” and walks the other way.
The Bad
There were only a couple of aspects of this movie that I would say missed the mark. This movie starts with a very slow build. I understand that Peele was laying the backstory to help us understand the characters, what is going on with the ranch, and the sibling relationship. This made for a very slow first act of the movie, where you find yourself wondering when things are going to start happening. I compared it to the slow build that we have in the movie JAWS, where we know there is a shark eating people, but you do not actually see the shark for almost the whole first hour of the film. Now what NOPE missed, that JAWS did right, was the lack of suspense for the first part of the film. Once things started happening though, the movie really got going.
The other issue I had with this film was the segments related to a chimpanzee called Gordy. Once again, I understand that Peele included these as a means of helping the audience understand primal animal behavior and maybe for the brutality factor, but I felt it did not contribute to the movie as a whole. This could have been covered with the horse’s behavior and how they react to loud sounds, flashing lights, and eye contact.
My Overall Opinion
NOPE was storytelling at its best, and once the ball gets rolling, you can not wait to see how it all unfolds. If you are a fan of either of Peele’s previous works, then NOPE is a must see. If you are a fan of creepy movies that keep you on the edge of your seat, then I would highly recommend going to see NOPE in theaters!
On his blog “GoodBadSpoilers.com”, Anthony Ritter critiques and writes a review on selected movies. Once you see a movie that Ritter has reviewed, visit his blog and share your point of view.
