The Greatest Horror Director’s Best Film Is Scarier Than Ever, Now Streaming On Netflix

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 3 seconds ago

One question that I get asked very often is why I like movies so much. Obviously, there are plenty of reasons: for example, movies are the best way to bring amazing stories to life in a way that audiences will never forget. What I don’t always admit to people is that I love films because they help me psychoanalyze myself. Like, why do I adore horror movies so much? Like, I live a pretty mild-mannered life and get wigged out by the grisly details of true crime podcasts. Nonetheless, nothing delights me quite as much as films where psychotic killers turn hapless victims into mincemeat.  

By getting closer to answering that question, I get that much closer to learning what makes my weird brain tick. That’s part of why I loved Nope (2022) so much: it’s a blockbuster from iconic horror director Jordan Peele that doesn’t settle for simply scaring us. Instead, the movie explores the weird intersection of film history, yearning nostalgia, and destructive spectacle, all of which force the audience to learn more about what they find scary and why. Care to learn more about yourself with one of the decade’s freshest, most frightening films? Good news, pilgrim: Nope is currently streaming on Netflix!

Cowboy And Alien

The plot of Nope is that a pair of siblings who provide horses for Hollywood productions discover something astonishing: namely, that a UFO has been snacking on their horses. They then decide to do what most of us would in their position: record the UFO and then sell the footage for cash. Unfortunately, capturing this thing on camera is easier said than done. For one thing, it has a bad habit of shutting down nearby electronics. For another thing, anyone who so much as looks at this thing is in danger of becoming its next meal.

Still, the stubborn siblings persist in their plan. They get help from an increasingly eclectic series of allies, including a grizzled cameraman and a former child actor who narrowly survived getting killed by a chimpanzee costar. Eventually, everything culminates in a madcap attempt by this ersatz crew to capture live footage of this alien object. But as its body count grows and they learn more about its terrible secrets, one thing becomes clear: everyone involved will be lucky if they manage to somehow get out of this alive!

The Dangers Of Nostalgia

One of the weirder things I loved about Nope is how it unflinchingly presents nostalgia as a kind of double-edged sword. Sometimes, looking back to the past can be wholesome, like when the sibling protagonists take pride in their family’s connection to the earliest days of Hollywood. Plus, the veteran cameraman uses a handcranked camera to circumvent the UFO’s anti-tech abilities, a moment that is presented as the ingenuity of the past triumphing over the problems of the present. But nostalgia can also be dangerous and debilitating, as evidenced by Steven Yeun’s Jupe character.

Jupe narrowly survived a tragedy in the ‘90s when a chimpanzee co-star named Gordy got startled and murdered everyone else before being shot. As an adult, Jupe weaponizes public nostalgia for his show and for old cowboy movies by creating a tacky, Western-style theme park. Jupe never stops dwelling on the past, and he would do anything (including putting hundreds of people in danger) to regain the fame he had as a child actor. He ultimately dies because he misunderstands how he survived the chimp’s attack in the first place (namely, by never looking directly at its eyes), showcasing how fatally fickle our nostalgic memories can be.  

The Most Believable Performances In Horror

As with all of director Jordan Peele’s films, the single best part of Nope is the cast. Sure, the special effects are excellent, and they do a great job of helping the UFO at the center of this weird tale be properly frightening. But the frights only work because we witness the scary events through the lens of what might be the most believable performers in horror history. Daniel Kaluuya’s OJ, for example, isn’t some walking horror cliche who makes a constant stream of bad decisions. Instead, he is the ultimate audience surrogate, reacting (often hilariously) in the exact baffled and beleaguered way that the rest of us would to a hungry UFO.

Kaluuya has absolutely amazing chemistry with Keke Palmer, who plays his sister. With one scene-stealing line after another, she helps bring their sibling rivalry to hilarious life, and Palmer always ensures that we can see the warmth and love undergirding every mean comment she makes to her onscreen brother. I also thought that Steven Yeun’s Jupe was remarkably complex: he is both a trauma survivor and a trauma-powered grifter, and Yeun helps to sell the desperate pathos of a man who makes one bad decision after another, all in an attempt to return to Hollywood glory days that everyone has forgotten but him.

A Deconstructed Mystery Box

When rewatching Nope, I finally put my finger on one of the more elusive reasons I always loved this movie: Jordan Peele takes the most annoying trope in film and finally does something interesting with it. After the success of JJ Abrams’ Lost, an increasing number of movies and TV shows embraced “mystery box” storytelling. These are the kinds of stories where key details are released in a slow trickle to force audience engagement. As with Lost, the answers are almost always disappointing, but the driving idea behind mystery box storytelling is that it’s okay if the reveal sucks, so long as the mystery is compelling.

Nope, by contrast, provides a kind of deconstructed mystery box. Key information isn’t trickle-truthed out to the audience; instead, we discover the most important things right alongside the characters, and every single promised payoff seriously delivers. That makes this horror film as immersive as it is rewarding, especially the climax that will leave you on the edge of your seat. What happens in this iconic horror movie, and what will it tell you about what you’re afraid of? The only way to find out is to stream it for yourself on Netflix!