Horror has long been a jumping pad for the biggest and brightest stars on the planet. Jamie Lee Curtis found fame in John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” Brooke Shields in “Alice, Sweet Alice,” Josh Hartnett in “Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later” and Tom Hanks in “He Knows You’re Alone,” just to name a few.
Likewise, numerous filmmakers got their start in horror. Those include the director of Oscar-winning film “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow (1987’s “Near Dark”), Sam Raimi (behind “The Evil Dead” franchise), and the iconic David Lynch, whose “Eraserhead” served as his directorial debut. These influential filmmakers may not have been thrust into the limelight had they not first stepped into the horror world.
But countless writers and directors have never set foot into horror. One of those legendary filmmakers, behind such classics as “Memento,” “The Dark Knight” and “Inception,” could see himself fleshing out his repertoire.
Christopher Nolan Could Make His First Horror Film
During a press tour for his brand new feature film, “The Odyssey,” Nolan spoke with Fred Asquith about the film and genres he might tackle next. “I’d love to do a horror movie,” the filmmaker said. “But it’s all about the idea. It’s all about: is there a story that really compels you?”
“I’ve never found that for me, other than in other ways,” he added. “There’s a sense in which ‘Oppenheimer’ is a horror movie. It was certainly dark material to engage with for that long.” Nolan went on to commend the genre as “cinematic,” “visceral” and “one where you’re really trying to give the audience a feeling of what the characters are experiencing.”
Through his career, Nolan has rubbed elbows with horror or horror-adjacent work. His feature film directorial debut, 1998’s “Following,” is billed as a crime/thriller, and 2000’s “Memento” bends into psychological thriller territory. Other films such as “The Prestige,” “Inception” and “Interstellar” draw upon thriller elements, as well as dabble in science fiction. He’s walked that line between genres quite admirably, and who knows what a horror film could look like in his hands.
‘The Odyssey’ Contains Traces of Horror Storytelling
In Nolan’s interview with Asquith, he pointed out that “there are very significant elements of horror baked into ‘The Odyssey’ in the original text.” The film is an adaptation of Homer’s classic Greek epic “The Odyssey,” in which the Greek king of Ithaca (most known as the Latin, “Ulysses”) makes a journey after the decade-long Trojan War.
War-time horror has a long tradition in the genre, as examined with films like “Come and See” (1985), “Full Metal Jacket” (1987), “Platoon” (1986) and “Grave of the Fireflies,” among countless others. While the horror rises subtly, it has clearly been an important stylistic foundation for these films.
“The Odyssey” follows in the tradition of genre melding. With a cast that includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, and Tom Holland, the film scraps along horror akin to Sam Raimi’s “Army of Darkness.” Christopher Nolan earmarks much of his work with horror underpinnings (e.g., “The Dark Knight” and “Tenet”) that become evident upon multiple viewings.
Nolan possibly stepping into horror offers endless opportunities. Horror fans should be delighted.
