How scary is ‘Nope?’

Nope is more horrific than most UFO movies

Peele’s niche is delving into the unexpected and Nope more than delivers. After the Haywood patriarch, Otis (Keith David), dies from what seems like a freak accident, his children uncover more baffling and unexplainable events. Random objects fall from the sky, and their horses are seemingly abducted. But it is only when local celebrity Ricky Park (Steven Yeun) proclaims the existence of a phenomenon that the film takes a turn. Ricky and his entire audience get sucked into what appears to be a flying saucer but is something much worse.

With visuals of a giant flying monster digesting people, Nope takes a sharp turn down Grotesque Lane. Once the entity the Haywoods dub Jean Jacket finishes its meal, it wastes no time in dumping buckets of blood all over the Haywood house. And when Peele isn’t throwing in surprising visuals, he also gives jump scares and one of the most disturbing opening scenes of any film in recent memory.

It is some time into the film before the inclusion of this sequence makes sense in the grander scheme of the film, but the flashback to Ricky’s most gruesome experience is not for the faint of heart. During his time as a child star, he acted in a show starring a chimpanzee. Everything goes wrong one harrowing day when the monkey snaps and kills and mutilates the cast before being shot down. This sequence not only sets the stage for a brutal film but shows that Ricky thinks he can tame Jean Jacket later in life. Nope is an alien film that explores scary territory, and if you are thinking this will be a Steven Spielberg gentle take on aliens, think again.