Christopher Nolan wants to make a horror movie
The Oppenheimer director would love to dabble in the genre, but he's waiting for a "really exceptional idea"
Aux News Christopher Nolan
In news that’s making our staff scream “yes!” and probably every other horror director scream “no!!”, Oscar-nominated director Christopher Nolan just said he wants to get into the ghost game. Yes!!!
During a recent conversation with London’s British Film Institute (via Variety), the director shared that “at some point, [he’d] love to make a horror film.” “Oppenheimer has elements of horror in it definitely, as I think is appropriate to the subject matter,” he explained. “I think horror films are very interesting because they depend on very cinematic devices, it really is about a visceral response to things.”
“It’s also one of the few genres where the studios make a lot of these films, and they are films that have a lot of bleakness, a lot of abstraction,” he added. “They have a lot of the qualities that Hollywood is generally very resistant to putting in films, but that’s a genre where it’s allowable.”
Oppenheimer seamlessly blends in some of those classic tropes in the center of the film to denote the real-life life horror of what its protagonist has done and what that act is doing to his psyche. In a chilling scene that occurs just after the bomb is dropped (off camera) on Japan, Oppenheimer addresses a raucous crowd of physicists and their families as his guilt appends falling ash and melting bodies on top of the whole picture.
With such a good handle on the beats of a genre he’s never officially dabbled in, horror director Christopher Nolan is certainly an intimidating (and awesome) prospect. But aspiring spooky filmmakers don’t have to hang up their Halloween release dreams just yet. “I think a really good horror film requires a really exceptional idea. And those are few and far between,” the director continued. “So I haven’t found a story that lends itself to that.” Also, to really do his full thing, Nolan would have to find a way to create real-life zombies or poltergeists or whatever his particular idea focused on. So it might take a little while.
27 Comments
If I remember, Inception was originally meant to be a horror movie. And you could see elements of it with the Mal character. I remember her suddenly glaring at the screen in one of the dreams making me jump in my seat. I think he could do horror really well.
If I remember, Inception was originally meant to be a horror movie. And you could see elements of it with the Mal character. I remember her suddenly glaring at the screen in one of the dreams making me jump in my seat. I think he could do horror really well.
Can’t say I’d want to have been Watanabe’s character either.
Fine. Let’s see the 21st century Kubrick tackle Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrion_ComfortLet’s see him fashion a 2.5 hour flick out of that masterpiece.
I think he should adapt Diamond Dogs by Alastair Reynolds. I think that would suit his aesthetic.
Ya know, I’d pay to watch that.
Yes! I came to suggest Reynolds. Eversion works well for his style also.
Based on the sterile, emotion-free tenor of Nolan’s movies, I predict that a horror movie he would make will have absolutely zero scares…
And yet he could still make it work!
Go for it, Chris. I’ll be there opening night.
I wonder if he could do a new Ring movie? The first English adaptation did well, but then the two sequels, while doing the story-filling, failed in the tension part.
I liked XKCD’s take on it!https://xkcd.com/396/
I’d be interested, but his tendency to over-explain his ideas would really kill a lot of tension inherent in horror.
Could work as a horror story tho.
The Prestige is pretty horrific.
It was. That last shot…..
I found Inception to be pretty terrifying. The idea of being trapped for years, or decades in a dream. Of coming out of it completely detached and unable to separate the real world from the dream? That idea really gets in your head.
I have the inverse problem. My mornings have always featured some amount of ‘Where/when/how the fuck am I?’, so Inception just slotted right in like an old lover.
I find all the endless exposition and cardboard cutout bad guys much more terrifying.
I think Nolan is an underrated genre filmmaker and a pretty fucking terrible “great” filmmaker. I still think “The Prestige” is his best film, followed by “Memento” (which does have some problems). In any case, I think he would actually be great at making a horror movie. He could use that he is so terrible at sound design to his advantage: set it on an airplane so that it’s really loud throughout, nobody expects to be able to hear anything, and people can sneak up on each other without even needing to be quiet. Basically, he does better without dialogue…give him a Quiet Place spinoff; or give him a hearing-impaired protagonist and the whole film is through their ears! Ohh I would give my money to see him make that fr frPlus, Cillian Murphy did such a great job in Red Eye it would be great to have him in a PSH-in-Mission: Impossible-type role.
There was plenty of horror in The Prestige (possibly Insomnia also). It was also thoroughly bleak and abstract so he shouldn’t have any problems. Maybe he should get together with del Toro. I think Bill could teach him a thing or two about how to make a scary flick.
Nolan could probably do a great adaptation of the most terrifying (short) story I’ve ever read – “The Jaunt.” He could certainly have fun with the technical aspects of the story. But I don’t know how you could make a feature out of it.
(short)It’s longer than you think…
The story has a lot of hints at larger worldbuilding. That’s not Nolan’s strong suit, though.
Here’s a horror movie idea, what happened after they dropped the bomb. A nice bookend to Oppenheimer. A way to showcase why he was so guilt-ridden(ish).
Also, to really do his full thing, Nolan would have to find a way to create real-life zombies or poltergeists or whatever his particular idea focused on.Not many people know this, but there were actually a handful of horror movies made prior to the advent of CGI. Some of them are even pretty good.
This tracks. In my mind the closest thing to a non-horror filmmaker doing a genre-ish horror film would be Kubrick’s The Shining. That’s also the sort of “mindfuck” horror that’s in Nolan’s wheelhouse.
Someone get A24 on the line