See Willem Dafoe Lose His Mind In New Psychological Thriller

Willem Dafoe slowly loses his mind after a heist gone wrong in the trailer for next year's Inside.

By Douglas Helm | Published

Willem Dafoe is doing one of the things that Willem Dafoe does best in his latest trailer — going slowly insane. The new trailer (via The AV Club) for Inside shows him trapped and alone, talking to pigeons, and licking the inside of a fridge to survive. In other worse, it looks pretty fantastic.

Inside follows Nemo, an art thief who becomes trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist goes wrong. The psychological survival thriller is directed by Vasilis Katsoupis and written by Ben Hopkins. As expected, the cast is pretty much Willem Dafoe, who seems more than up to the task to carry the movie on his own.

Willem Dafoe has played quite a few insane characters over the past few years, as he played a strangely verbose lighthouse keeper in 2019’s The Lighthouse. He also reprised one of his most famous insane-person roles when he returned as Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. As always, Dafoe was able to steal every scene he was in, but now he’ll have the chance to run the whole show in Inside.

willem dafoe

We should expect to see plenty more Willem Dafoe performances next year, as the actor has an array of movies that are currently in post-production. Although none of them have official release dates, Dafoe will be starring in prestigious films like Asteroid City, Poor Things, and Gonzo Girl. Of these films, Asteroid City might be one of the most anticipated.

Asteroid City will be the latest film from auteur Wes Anderson, who directed and co-wrote the script with Roman Coppola. The film follows an astronomy convention in a desert town in the 1950s. If that sparse description doesn’t sell you, the cast certainly will as along with Willem Dafoe it also stars Margot Robbie, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Maya Hawke, Steve Carrell, Bryan Cranston, Sophie Lillis, Rupert Friend, Hong Chau, Jeff Goldblum, Fisher Stevens, Matt Dillon, Liev Schreiber, and Jason Schwartzman.

Willem Dafoe also has a starring role in Poor Things, the next feature-length film from indie darling director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster). Poor Things is adapted by Tony McNamara and from the novel by Alasdair Gray about an eccentric scientist who brings a young woman back to life. Along with Dafoe, the film stars Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Mark Ruffalo, Jerrod Carmichael, Kathryn Hunter, Christopher Abbott, and Ramy Youssef.

Gonzo Girl should be another chance for Willem Dafoe to play a slightly unhinged character, as he plays a drug-addled author who takes on an aspiring writer as an assistant (Camila Morrone). The film will be the feature directorial debut of Patricia Arquette, with Jessica Caldwell and Rebecca Thomas adapting the novel by Cheryl Della Pietra. The cast is rounded out by Arquette, Elizabeth Lail, Leila George, Ray Nicholson, and Rick Springfield.

While most of Willem Dafoe’s upcoming projects don’t have release dates yet, we do know when you can catch him in Inside. The film is set to hit theaters on March 10, 2023. Until then you’ll just have to keep the trailer on repeat.