‘Oppenheimer’ Director Christopher Nolan Wants to Make a Horror Movie: “It really is about a visceral response”
Christopher Nolan hasn’t made a horror movie before, but he’s come close. Both Memento and Insomnia are classic noirs, frightening procedurals that cull from the best of what the horror genre has historically done. Last year’s Oppenheimer has a particular scene that’s haunting in its implications, and Dunkirk—especially Hans Zimmer’s score—never feels safe, cultivating the suffocating tension horror is known for. If you’ve ever wanted Christopher Nolan to make a straight-up horror movie, you might be in luck. He wants to make one.
Speaking at an event at London’s British Film Institute last Thursday, Nolan remarked, “Oppenheimer has elements of horror in it definitely, as I think is appropriate to the subject matter. I think horror films are very interesting because they depend on very cinematic devices, it really is about a visceral response to things and so, at some point, I’d love to make a horror film.”
According to science, horror films are distinctly visceral. They target physiological responses in a way few other genres do. Laughing and crying are great, but there’s something profoundly remarkable when a piece of media can trigger our innate fear responses, urging us to scream or jump up from our seats. It’s why we continue to go see them. It’s like a high; we’re always chasing the next great scare.
While Christopher Nolan might want to make a horror movie, he isn’t ready quite yet. He added, “But I think a really good horror film requires a really exceptional idea. And those are few and far between. So I haven’t found a story that lends itself to that.”
Still, Christopher Nolan said, “But I think it’s a very interesting genre from a cinematic point of view. 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. 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.”
Horror is bleak, and I love it. What other genre is going to bankroll killer, dancing robots or vicious, deadite mayhem?
What do you think? Would you like to see Christopher Nolan make a horror movie? Are you also itching to rewatch Insomnia now? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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