Reed Alexander's Horror Review of 'NOPE' (2022)

There are three distinct kinds of horror in this movie. One of them I'm not sure needed to be in there, but I'll talk about that later. For the most part, this starts out as your typical Alien Abduction Horror movie. Strange goings on, near encounters, unexplainable events, the typical sort, and from there, it changes into something very different I can't get into without spoiling the movie. In fact, I won't even get into it in the spoilers because I don't need to for this review, and I don't want to spoil what is actually a very fun film.

The plot is actually quite brilliant. A brother and sister have a struggling ranch that is slowly running out of money and resources, then the brother has a close encounter. The sister comes up with an idea to save the ranch by getting good footage of the UFO (or UAP). At first, it becomes an obsession of hers, chasing fame and all, then shit gets real. That's good stuff right there, a story about someone chasing their 15 minutes of fame, and it's got aliens to boot.

The cinematography is fantastic as well. Not only is the atmosphere perfect for each different style in the film, a lot of the shots are downright picturesque. There is one scene in the movie where it's just silhouettes of the actors and the set against the lighting and it reminded both me and my wife of old Hitchcock films. It even includes sounds and music that are Hitchcock reminicent. The atmosphere there was just fantastic.

Of course, the acting is marvelous. A weeeee bit hammy at times, which might have been intentional, but felt a little out of place. Outside of that, the acting is excellent. We've seen the range of Daniel Kaluuya with this film and Get Out (2017), so we know the guy's got talent. And one of my favorite actors, Michael Wincott plays a pretty interesting character.

I don't understand why this movie got so much hate, but then, I see a bit of a pattern with Jordan Peele's movies getting a lot of hate. Frankly, I thought it was fantastic. I highly recommend this movie. It might not be good for general adult audiences, but it's definitely a 'must watch' for Horror Heads. While not as high on my All-Time Top list as Us (2019) or Get Out (2017), it's gonna be pretty high on that list. Top 20 at least. And let me just say this, there isn't a single other director with three movies in my top twenty.

SPOILERS!!!

What the absolute fuck is with the story about the chimp? Yeah, I get it, the whole story is kinda about 'when animals attack' but it seems like filler. The story about the chimp isn't even the background of one of the central characters. It's the background of Steven Yeun's character, Ricky, and he's not all that important to the story. I mean, they could have just made it the background of a central character and tied it into the movie better. It just doesn't feel very attached to the rest of the movie. Like there's this other movie we occasionally get clips of while Ricky is still alive.

And I feel like there was a whole part of the story that should have tied Ricky in better. Like, he knows about the 'aliens' and apparently has been showcasing them to anyone that pays to see them. The movie would have been a little more interesting with Ricky and Keke Palmer's character Emerald in a race to get footage of the UFO. Like, if we got into Ricky hatching a plan to undercut Emerald and that's how he got a whole bunch of people killed. That would really play in to Emerald's obsession with getting famous.

I won't spoil the rest but from the moment when Ricky bites it, the movie completely changes as well as the style and atmosphere and it's just so fascinating. Not quite a twist, but kinda. Anyway, watch this movie.