10 Best Monster Horror Movies Of The 2020s (So Far)

Jordan Peele knows his genre referents well, and when he sets out to make a monster movie, he makes a kaiju, UFO, Western monster movie. And this is precisely what we get in Nope.

A film that ought to have been called Don't Look Up (if that name hadn't already been taken), Nope stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as OJ and Em Haywood, horse-wrangling siblings who are dogged by a mysterious presence in the skies. A flying saucer-like creature they call Jean Jacket is abducting their horses at night, causing spikes and dips in their electricity, and raining small objects and keepsakes from the sky that turn deadly when they reach top velocity. Despite appearances, this is no spacecraft but a gigantic flying monster that can unfold and adopt an even larger inflated form, and the Haywoods put their lives and livelihoods on the line to find a way to defeat and prevent it from destroying everything they have.

Peele offers us a full palette of horror tropes while putting his own distinctive spin on them, inviting us into a world where we recognise the setup but not the follow-through. The suspense, the mystery, and the overall surreal tone make Nope a cut above the average monster movie and easily one of this half-decade's best.