Christopher Nolan Is Looking For The Perfect Horror Movie To Make

During an in-depth conversation about his craft and career at an event hosted by the British Film Institute in London, the Oppenheimer director said that the only thing that’s holding him back from working on a horror film is the fact that the right story hasn’t yet presented itself.

In other words, he’s biding his time waiting for the horror story that he wants to tell to materialize.

During the event, Christopher Nolan suggested that there were, in fact, elements of horror in Oppenheimer, and he’s not wrong. There’s nothing more terrifying than the prospect of a nuclear holocaust that’s the direct result from mankind’s willingness to create weapons of mass destruction. But at the end of the day, Oppenheimer set out to be a biographical historical drama, which requires a much wider scope than one would find in a typical horror film.

Looking back at Christopher Nolan’s filmography, it’s only fitting that he’s willing to explore the more visceral aspects of a straight-up horror film.

Though 2000’s Memento falls into the psychological thriller wheelhouse, it boasts several characteristics that are adjacent to horror.

Christopher Nolan’s ability to tell a story through the eyes of an unreliable narrator who suffers from short-term memory loss using non-linear storytelling should be evidence enough that he is a master of suspense and subverting viewer expectations.

Guy Pearce’s Leonard Shelby character in Memento has the perfect psychological makeup for either a troubled protagonist or an unwitting antagonist in a horror movie, depending on the context.

The same can be said about 2002’s Insomnia, which takes place in the small fishing town of Nightmute, Alaska. While Insomnia plays out more like a police procedural, it could have easily been pushed into horror territory if Christopher Nolan wanted to take that route.

Between Al Pacino’s descent into sleep-deprived madness and Robin Williams’ ability to be so menacing and manipulative with his portrayal of a crime writer suspected of murder, it’s clear that Nolan is no stranger to focusing his lens on the dark side of humanity.

It’s worth noting, however, that Christopher Nolan is not one to rest on his laurels. Since he already explored the darker aspects of human psychology in past psychological thrillers, it’s not likely that he’d want to try recreating character archetypes that he’s already explored in the past.

It’s clear that if serendipity were to push him into the horror genre, he’d be well-equipped to push the envelope and take his filmmaking into truly unsettling territory.

Christopher Nolan isn’t presently working on a horror movie, but now that he spoke the prospect into existence, we can’t help but wonder how long it will take before he’s struck with the inspiration to do so. If we had to weigh in, the best way to get him to step on the gas is to infiltrate his dreams a la Inception and whisper the story he wants to tell into his subconscious.