In a recent conversation with the British Film Institute, renowned director Christopher Nolan revealed he wants to explore the horror genre. Always curious about doing a horror picture, Nolan said he “would love” to make it happen and explained why he is so intrigued with the genre.
Nolan told the audience, “I think horror films are very interesting because they depend on very cinematic devices. It’s really about [provoking] a visceral response to things. So at some point, I’d love to make a horror film. 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 the story that lends itself to that. 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’re films that have a lot of bleakness, a lot of abstraction. They have a lot qualities that Hollywood is generally very resistant to putting into films, but that’s a genre where it’s allowable.”
The director also confirmed that he used elements of horror in his most recent picture Oppenheimer, specifically after the Manhattan Project team was successful in creating the first atomic weapon. He said, “Certainly Oppeneheimer has elements of horror — which I definitely think is appropriate for the subject matter.” He added, “…The middle of the film is very heavily based on the heist genre, and the third act of the film is the courtroom drama. And the reason I settled on those two genres for those sections is they are mainstream genres in which dialogue and people talking is inherently tense and interesting to an audience. That’s the fun thing with genre — you get to play with a lot of different areas whereas in different type of film you really wouldn’t be allowed to.”
Christopher Nolan bfi in conversation talk event possible horror film Oppenheimer video clip director pic.twitter.com/W2phQQSTuw
— @inceptstellar (@hardyfilm) February 16, 2024
