(Credit: Press)

Having firmly established his reputation with a new and distinctive brand of horror, Jordan Peele promoted his follow-up to Get Out and Us with great circumspection, leaving fans with only the vaguest clues as to even the film’s genre and subject matter. The mystery doesn’t end when the film begins. Nope takes Peele’s innovative and unconventional approach in another direction with a movie that combines science fiction horror with comedy, adding a touch of revised Western for good measure. In truth, it is not a great film, but it gets extra points for being courageously original, particularly in view of Hollywood’s current tendency to focus on remakes and sequels of whatever topic was most recently profitable. Peele is willing to risk confusing or displeasing his audience in order to present the story he wants to tell. He does not, at least, have to worry about boring his viewers; the film holds attention even at its weaker moments. 

Trailers and publicity photos for Nope show characters looking up to the sky in amazement, leading to an idle rumour that the title was an acronym for Not Of Planet Earth. That is not the case. The exclamation ‘nope’ is simply a comically understated expression of horrified denial. Is it a UFO story? Yes – more or less – but not exclusively, and never in the established or expected way. The film includes a series of sub-plots that either augment or mirror the central story. One such minor plot introduces the film: a mysterious disaster apparently taking place on the set of an old sitcom, the highly disturbing details of which are gradually revealed as the film continues. The peculiar choice of opening, coupled with an ominous quote from the book of Nahum, sets the tone for the film’s erratic mixture of humour, suspense, and terror. 

Daniel Kaluuya of Get Out fame plays O J Haywood, who trains horses for use in movies and television commercials. After his father dies under bizarre circumstances, Haywood inherits the ranch and is soon joined by his sister, Emerald, played by Keke Palmer. Light comedy derives from the sibling squabbles between the very dissimilar Haywoods, interactions with television producers unaccustomed to horses, and encounters with a neighbour (Stephen Yuen of Minari), a former child star who now runs a gaudy Wild West carnival. All these details come together when strange things begin to appear in the sky over the Haywood ranch, uniting the Haywoods and a peculiar band of associates in an ill-equipped defensive alliance.

Unlike the very successful Get Out, which was filmed in an intimate mode and relied on fine points of human interaction to build suspense and fear, Nope is less personal and uses a wider scope, both literally and in terms of plot development. It is set in open ranching county and makes use of broad landscapes and mysterious, distant camera shots, making it particularly well adapted to an IMAX showing where possible. It is also free with creative camera work and unconventional soundtrack choices to set a mood or suggest a potential threat. The exact nature of the threat remains chillingly mysterious for most of the film, and special effects are used with restraint and in unanticipated ways to keep the viewer off balance even once the villain is identified.

Nope does not follow a straightforward horror storyline. Instead, its complete unpredictability is part of its charm, but also makes it a little too relentlessly cryptic at times. Several themes are unravelled in the first act: the history of the Haywood ranch, Black Americans’ place in filmmaking, the training of horses, and the mysterious sitcom ‘incident’ that has left a mark on the ranch’s neighbour — even, oddly enough, the continuous presence of so-called ‘sky dancers’ (the inflatable cartoon figures seen outside used car lots and such) and other advertising devices. These weirdly random elements all find a place in the developing threat and the community’s response to it – sometimes a very direct place, as when the film’s chapters are named after the various Haywood horses. Beyond serving as tools and plot devices, they are obviously meant as metaphors for the central threat, but the film is cagey about their precise meaning. The effect is reminiscent of a much older UFO-related movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, leaving the audience watching the array of symbolic objects and images and thinking vaguely but confidently, “This means something!”

Still, the metaphors themselves are entertaining and fun, and their use is as unpredictable as the rest of the film. The cast is well chosen, the central odd-couple siblings strong and relatable characters, well supported by other would-be UFO fighters: their carnival-owning neighbour, a security camera installer (Brandon Perea) who takes an interest in their plight, and an eccentric documentary filmmaker (Michael Wincott) who agrees to try and capture the possible UFO on camera. The comedy ranges from mild and whimsical to painfully dark, and the horror scenes run the gamut from obscurely threatening to outright gruesome, almost all of them unexpected and offbeat. It is only in the final act, when the characters become involved in planning and executing a defence campaign, that the film becomes close to conventional, and we are faced with more commonplace science fiction. This is not Peele’s best work, but it is well made and has much of his familiar inventiveness and novel approach to horror, making it a film well worth watching.