Universal Pictures released the Nope trailer on February 13, 2022. This news article contains spoilers for the 124-second clip. Keep up with the latest industry headlines in the Vague Visages news section.

The Nope trailer teases the third feature by American filmmaker Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us). Set in California, the storyline follows Hollywood horse trainers who make a chilling discovery at their ranch. Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther) and Keke Palmer (Hustlers, Alice) star as James Haywood and Jill Haywood, respectively, while Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, Minari) provides a supporting performance as a cowboy hat-wearing character named Brian. The Nope trailer features the 1963 needle-drop “Fingertips Pts. 1 & 2” by Stevie Wonder, and includes the tagline “What’s a Bad Miracle?”

Based on the Nope trailer, audiences can expect existential dread and sci-fi terror. The reversed interstitial graphic “From Jordan Peele” reminds of The Shining’s opening text, “A Stanley Kubrick Film,” if only because of the placement and background landscape imagery. One particular visual calls to mind an alien reveal from M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 film Signs, and some of the most disturbing frames in the Nope trailer foreshadow Cronenbergian body horror. Universal describes the film as a “pop nightmare” and “expansive horror epic,” so it will be interesting to see how Peele blends traditional Western tropes with psychological horror, and if he keeps the majority of the film at Haywood Ranch, rather than exploring numerous L.A. locations a la Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a film that arguably peaks — in terms of pure suspense — with its extended Spahn Ranch sequence.

Nope’s supporting cast includes Barbie Ferreira (Divorce, Euphoria), Michael Wincott (Basquiat, Westworld), Donna Mills (Play Misty for Me, Knots Landing), Terry Notary (The Cabin in the Woods, Kong: Skull Island), Brandon Perea (The OA, Dance Camp), Jennifer Lafleur (Big Little Lies, Room 104), Andrew Patrick Ralston (Veep, Physical) and Ryan W. Garcia (Side Hustle, My Fiona). The film is scheduled for a July 22, 2022 release by Universal Pictures. Check out the Nope trailer below.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.