After random objects falling from the sky result in the death of their father, ranch-owning siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood attempt to capture video evidence of an unidentified flying object with the help of tech salesman Angel Torres and documentarian Antlers Holst.

 

I’ve gotta admit it. I haven’t seen Jordan Peele’s other work. Not because of any other reason than horror is just not my thing. I’m a massive scaredy cat so normally I send our other reviewers to the scary ones. With all our reviewers otherwise engaged, I had to head off to Nope myself. 

 

While there are a couple of jump scares that I saw coming and thankfully didn’t leap to the cinema ceiling, Nope is more of a sci-fi flick than it is horror. And it’s a strange old flick at that.

 

The best way to describe Nope is that it's all a bit loose. While the narrative is a simple one, trying to catch video evidence of an unidentified flying object, there are quite a few narrative leaps throughout the film which make you wonder, hang on, how did we end up here again? Most of these leaps concern character motivation and decision making which makes them that more obvious. 

 

Thematically it doesn’t seem too sure of itself either, proposing varied themes from humanity's attempt to control wild beasts to capturing the perfect cinematic shot. This leads to the film having quite slow moments punctuated by action set pieces that race along at a heart pounding pace. 

 

That being said, Nope has some great creative and thrilling moments. From a spine tingling horse shed alien invasion to the design of the alien creatures themselves, Nope will make you grip hard to the cinema seat particularly throughout its epic last act. 

 

While Nope is inconsistent in its pacing and themes, it still brings spine tingling and thrilling moments to the screen.