Nope

[olivermoss]

It's on Prime right now so I decided to watch it while I can



I was a bit slow to watch this because I really didn't like Us. The acting in Us was ridiculously good, the subtle hints of wrongness, the slow build. So much about it was great, but it built to just... randomness? It really lost me. I loved Get Out, but Us just didn't work for me despite the amazing super creepy scenes.

For Nope, I loved the Weird West setting. They really did it justice and it is hard to do. Some English horror is all about tiny little ancient villages and customs hiding just about anything... American Weird West / Western Horror is all about how the sheer vastness can hide anything and they did an amazing job with that. It can be so compelling, but it's hard to do right especially in a story. It usually only works in static, 2d art. The scene when the power is coming back on after the house got coated was one of the best moments in the genre ever.

The way themes were set up and the visual references to Zoetropes and the way the alien looked a biiit like the Flatwoods Monster cryptid when it was blooming, all excellent. The camera tech all being plausible, amazing. They nailed so many things in this film. That said the first hour was a slog. If I'd have watched it in a theater with soda and popcorn I'd have been adsorbed the whole time. Watching it on a small screen I had to keep my attention from wandering.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

Nope was definitely a film that was best on a big screen. I was glad it was one that Alex and I braved a theater to see.
I also watched it with my younger sibling and mom at home, and while I still really enjoyed it, I can see what you mean about it taking a while to take off, which was a lot more noticeable on a small screen.

But I fucking loved the creature design, the way so many little visual details from early on get called back to... And yes, actually good Weird West!

[olivermoss]

Weird West is so compelling, and such a wanted genre, but it's so hard to get right. It'll be interesting if this helps boost the genre. Sometimes, one production getting things really right helps others figure it out.

[mistressofmuses]

It's definitely a difficult vibe to capture effectively. Still art can do a lot, because those single snapshot moments of bizarre horror *do* leave things unseen and implied. I feel like short stories can do well as well, especially ones that lean a bit into the isolation themes, so there are the right kinds of vast unknown around the edges of the story... but a lot also do it poorly.

It'd be nice if Nope does inspire more good entries into the genre. Seeing it done well is certainly easier than trying to imagine how and if it could be done well!