Talk Horror To Me: Documenting Trauma In ‘Nope (2022)
In Tell Me About Horror, writer Emma Kexin Wang 24 reviews the horror films, psychological thrillers and all things scary that have emerged in recent years. Spoilers ahead, read carefully.
Editor's Note: This article is a review and contains subjective thoughts, opinions and criticism.
Following the success of Get Out and Us, Jordan Peele returns to the world of horror in 2022 with No. 1. The film weaves humorous tales about cowboys and aliens into a less harrowing but independent story about documenting traumatic events and the film industry itself in which Peele succeeded.
With a relatively simple plot, No differs from Bale's first two films, which were famous for their twist at the end. The film follows Otis Jr. (OJ, played by Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Amy, played by Keke Palmer), both members of a family of horse traders, when they try to photograph a UFO, which leads to their deaths. Father. He joins two other characters, a technician brother and a famous photographer, in his quest to gain the fame Oprah deserves.
The film begins with a very disturbing scene. Behind the stage, in front of an empty audience, an unconscious body lay on the floor. We heard heavy breathing and saw a handheld camera move slightly under the table, indicating we were hiding with someone. After a series of slow and brutal blows, a bloody monkey appeared on the screen. He slams the standing leg into the body, sits up and throws it away.
We soon learn that child actor Joby (Steven Yeo) is hiding, who was supposed to appear on stage in a comedy, but his partner, a monkey named Jordin, went on a rampage and killed all the actors except him. Justus later becomes the manager of a western amusement park and buys the horses of the film's main characters, OJ and Em.
At its core, No highlights two problems that arise when dealing with personal trauma: the commodification of trauma as a commercial experience and the perverse, voyeuristic desire to view images of traumatic events, called “trauma porn.”
Justus couldn't get over his surprise. He indirectly depicts the day of the murder by re-enacting a scene from Saturday Night Live rather than recounting his own experience. A group of fans of the show asked for money to spend the night on this set. Justus fulfills this wish and uses his childhood trauma to turn it into an experience that others can consume.
Interestingly, Justus turns trauma into performance through his work as a director. He made an offer to use the horse as bait with the intention of having the UFO suck the horse into the ship. Instead, everyone in the room was locked up, including Justus himself, and ironically the horse was unharmed.
After OJ witnessed a UFO attack, he realized that the UFO was a predator that only attacked when seen directly. To avoid being spotted, the four-person team of photographers had to stay out of "sight" of the animal.
Holst, the famous photographer who helps OJ and Em photograph the UFO, is obsessed with getting the "perfect photo" and points his camera at the UFO's massive black hole. It is absorbed in the stomach.
“No” not only imagines what it means to witness trauma, but also looks at the history of black people's erasure at the hands of the film industry. The unsettling sequence after the title card, which we later learn takes place on a UFO, cuts to a black-and-white scene of a black man on a horse.
This episode is familiar to film fans. As Em later points out, this is a scene from the first film. Edward Muybridge, a photographer commissioned by Leland Stanford, photographed galloping horses in a series of photographs.
Although many remember Muybridge, the black man depicted in the film is never mentioned. Black people and the roles they played have seemingly been erased from our cultural memory since the beginning of this film. The main characters, M and OJ, are the grandchildren of the fictional "actors" in Muybridge's pictures.
When Amy was finally able to photograph the UFO, she looked at the western amusement park entrance. There, OJ sits on a horse in the fog. - Survive the alien attack. The framing of the door and blurring of the scene is reminiscent of a Muybridge video.
Through fiction and film, Peele attempts to bridge historical gaps. An ending in which our heroes survive and achieve their goals paves the way for excitement and dark possibilities.
