Christopher Nolan Compares Oppenheimer to a Horror Movie

Oppenheimer tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the late director of the Manhattan Project and, in turn, the father of the atomic bomb. Given the physicist’s teams created the bombs that would go on to kill over 300,000 people at the end of World War 2, it makes sense for the film to straddle the line of horror. Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan say it’s something the upcoming blockbuster does well, to the point of leaving movie-goers devastated when they leave theaters.

“It is an intense experience, because it’s an intense story. I showed it to a filmmaker recently who said it’s kind of a horror movie. I don’t disagree,” Nolan said in a recent chat with Wired magazine. “It’s interesting that you used the word nihilism earlier, because I don’t think I’d quite managed to put my finger on it. But as I started to finish the film, I started to feel this color that’s not in my other films, just darkness. It’s there. The film fights against that.”

According to Nolan, he’s glad to be done with post-production on the film so that he can help clear his conscience of the darker subject matter.

“You know, I was relieved to be finished with it, actually. But I enjoy watching the film tremendously,” the director added. “I think you’ll understand when you see the film. It’s a complicated set of feelings to be entertained by awful things, you know? Which is where the horror dimension comes in.”

Joining Oppenheimer lead Cillian Murphy are Emily Blunt as Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie as Edward Teller, Michael Angarano as Robert Serber, Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence, Dylan Arnold as Frank Oppenheimer, David Krumholtz as Isidor Isaac Rabi, Matthew Modine as Vannevar Bush, Josh Peck as Kenneth Bainbridge, Devon Bostick as Seth Neddermeyer, Matthias Schweighöfer as Werner Heisenberg, Christopher Denham as Klaus Fuchs, Guy Burnet as George Eltenton, Danny Deferrari as Enrico Fermi, Emma Dumont as Jackie Oppenheimer, Gustaf Skarsgård as Hans Bethe, Trond Fausa Aurvåg as George Kistiakowsky, and Gary Oldman as Harry S. Truman.

Opening on July 21st, Oppenheimer is based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.