{"id":549956,"date":"2026-07-20T04:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/549956\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T04:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:13:11","slug":"christopher-nolan-needs-to-make-a-horror-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/549956\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Nolan Needs to Make a Horror Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker who is largely genre agnostic, flitting between surreal heist movies (\u201cInception\u201d), sci-fi adventures (\u201cInterstellar\u201d), true-life war stories (\u201cDunkirk\u201d) and knotty biographies (\u201cOppenheimer\u201d). His latest excursion is into the world of Greek historical fantasy, with \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d<\/a> his largest (and, indeed, one of his most impressive) movies yet.<\/p>\n

But underneath the large-scale battle sequences and intricate swordplay, there\u2019s something else \u2013 in a handful of sequences, Nolan tips his hat towards making a horror movie. And it is galvanizing.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not going to go into too much detail on these sequences, since the movie has just opened, but there\u2019s an encounter with a towering cyclops (played by an unrecognizable Bill Irwin) that has been teased in the movie\u2019s marketing materials and is perhaps the best example of Nolan going full horror in \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d As Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his men are trapped in the cyclops\u2019 cave, they are forced to hatch a desperate escape attempt and avoid getting eaten by the massive creature, who grabs and consumes Odysseus\u2019 soldiers as if they were so many Sour Patch Kids being downed at your local AMC movie theater.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sequence filled with dread and actual terror, with Nolan ratcheting up the suspense and frequent collaborator Ludwig G\u00f6ransson making things even more unbearable with his nerve-shredding score.<\/p>\n

As the sequence concluded, it\u2019s hard not to think, Now Nolan should do a whole movie that feels like that.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s honestly come close. \u201cInception\u201d was originally envisioned as a horror movie, before shifting to the more traditionally Nolan-y heist format.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking along the lines of a horror movie at first, but it eventually became this project,\u201d Nolan told The Telegraph in 2010<\/a>, referring to \u201cInception.\u201d \u201cI was looking for a device whereby the dreams would become important to the story, and the thought that someone could invade your dream space and steal an idea is immensely compelling to me. The concept that dreams feel real while we\u2019re in them underlies the whole film.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in the years since, he has brought up his desire to make something more outwardly spooky.<\/p>\n

In 2024, he told Variety<\/a> that he\u2019d \u201clove to make a horror film,\u201d and at a British Film Institute event<\/a> that same year said, \u201cI think a really good horror film requires a really exceptional idea. And those are few and far between\u201d but that the genre\u2019s willingness to play with both big ideas and strange visuals appeals to him. \u201cThey have a lot of the qualities that Hollywood is generally very resistant to putting in films, but that\u2019s a genre where it\u2019s allowable,\u201d Nolan told the BFI.<\/p>\n

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Even during press for \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d he\u2019s brought up horror movies.<\/p>\n

When talking to Letterboxd<\/a> about the cumbersome filmmaking process behind his latest, he described that when he first started seeing IMAX movies in museums when he was a teenager (things like \u201cTo Fly\u201d by Jim Freeman and Greg MacGillivray), he was immediately thinking of the narrative possibilities of the large-scale format. \u201cEven as a kid I was thinking, Why can\u2019t we do an adventure story this way? An action film? A horror movie?\u201d That\u2019s right \u2013 a horror movie.<\/p>\n

Throughout his career you can see flashes of this fascination with horror \u2013 the Scarecrow\u2019s fear gas in \u201cBatman Begins\u201d (a movie largely consumed with scariness), the squeamish torture sequence that starts off \u201cTenet,\u201d the ghoulishness of \u201cThe Prestige\u2019s\u201d big reveal, and a handful of moments in \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d \u2013 but he has also clearly been held back from going all in on the genre.<\/p>\n

If anything, though, \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d and the success of the movie\u2019s scarier sequences, prove that not only is Nolan capable of making a horror movie, but that now is the time, especially, with \u201cOppenheimer\u201d and now \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d he has comfortably returned to R-rated filmmaking for the first time since his underrated, Oscar-nominated serial killer thriller \u201cInsomnia\u201d back in 2002 (until now, arguably his most outwardly horrific movie).<\/p>\n

\"ChristopherChristopher Nolan on the set of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d (Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

This is a director who has conquered every technological and storytelling challenge that he\u2019s set out for himself. A World War II movie set across three distinct time periods, with an interlocking narrative that you can somehow both follow and be completely riveted by? Check. A trilogy of some of the best, most thematically knotty comic book movies ever? Sure. A biopic of a man whose restless curiosity will likely lead to the destruction of all humankind? Here are your Academy Awards sir.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another mountain for him to climb, and that\u2019s to make the scariest, most horrifying movie that he can imagine, film it with the most up-to-date, most immersive IMAX cameras and stuff it with movie stars that otherwise wouldn\u2019t \u201clower\u201d themselves to be in a project like this. He can really try to push the visuals to places that most would be uncomfortable with, recruit G\u00f6ransson for another unforgettable score, and expand his thematic concerns while also exploring those ideas that he consistently returns to in his work (the nature of storytelling, the elusiveness of time, the power of regret). And watch the box office numbers climb and the Academy Award nominations trickle in.<\/p>\n

After all, his cinematic hero Stanley Kubrick attempted horror and made one of the great movies, regardless of genre, of all time, one that is still keeping new generations up at night, even now. Surely that must nag at him.<\/p>\n

Clearly, making a horror movie is on Nolan\u2019s mind. And when he finally gives into his desires, and opens up that darkened closet door, we will all be much richer for it.<\/p>\n

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