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The Oscar-winning director’s adaptation of Homer’s epic is in theaters now
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Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey features horror elements, including body horror scenes with a cyclops and the witch Circe
Nolan says he’s open to directing a full horror movie but only if he finds an “amazing idea”
Samantha Morton revealed the film’s shapeshifting scenes used practical effects instead of CGI for a more authentic feel
Christopher Nolan has done everything from a superhero trilogy to a space journey, and now, an adaptation of the oldest story ever told. But there’s one genre the Oscar-winning director has yet to venture into.
Audiences have long implored Nolan, 55, to make a horror movie, and now they finally have a taste of what they wished for. Nolan’s latest film, The Odyssey, includes horror scenes in which the Greek hero Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his men come face-to-face with a cyclops, as well as the witch Circe (Samantha Morton), in a moment that embodies body horror.
“They don’t need to beg me to tell a horror story anymore,” Nolan joked in a July interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Just buy a ticket.”
Still, the writer-director is interested in making a movie fully in the genre — but only if inspiration strikes.
“It very much whets my appetite for more,” he said of The Odyssey‘s horror scenes. “But I’ve always believed that horror as a genre has to be approached very carefully from a conceptual point of view. In other words, you have to have an amazing idea.”
He added, “When you go see a film like Obsession, that’s an amazing idea. That movie works like a motherf---er. It’s not about the technical side. It’s not about what technical itches I would have to scratch. It’s about story. So I’m always looking.”
Nolan has previously spoken about his interest in making a horror movie, sharing that the right idea has not come to him yet.
“I’ve never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked for me,” Nolan shared on Empire‘s film podcast, before adding, “I love the genre.”
“Of all genres, it’s the most visceral,” he said. “Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.”
The director added that he often goes to see horror movies with his four children in theaters and has been quickly impressed with the “risks” taken in just the first 30-45 minutes of the movie.
As for the horror elements in his own movie, specifically in Circe’s scene in which she turns Odysseus’ men into pigs, the cast of the movie have shared that Nolan didn’t resort to CGI, and instead, the shapeshifting all took place on-screen.
“I just have to say there’s no CGI, and everything is real and in camera,” Morton, 49, told Vanity Fair in July of the pivotal scene. “That’s movie magic. There’s always been ways that movie magic can deceive us in a beautiful way.”
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The Odyssey is in theaters now.
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