Well, maybe Oppenheimer isn’t a horror film in the traditional sense. We aren’t expecting a masked villain, wielding a knife, to jump out to chase Robert J. Oppenheimer, the creator of the atomic bomb, but it does seem like the film is rather horrifying.
Talking to WIRED about the early reactions to his new film, which is set to burst into screens next month, Nolan described the film as an “intense experience”.
“Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated. They can’t speak.” Blimey.
Credit: Universal Pictures
“There’s an element of fear that’s there in the history and there in the underpinnings. But the love of the characters, the love of the relationships, is as strong as I’ve ever done,” Nolan said of the story of Oppenheimer, who is portrayed in the film by Nolan-regular Cillian Murphy.
“I showed it to a filmmaker recently who said it’s kind of a horror movie. I don’t disagree,” Nolan commented on the horrors of Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer is Nolan’s first R-rated film since 2002 Insomnia, which speaks to the intensity mentioned by Nolan.
The film is set to battle Greta Gerwig’s Barbie at the box office after neither film moved from their 21 July release date. It’s either a brilliant marketing move from Universal and Warner Bros or it might prove to be cinematic suicide for at least one of the films.
READ MORE: What is Ken-ergy, the force fuelling Ryan Gosling in Barbie?
Oppenheimer, like most of Nolan’s films, was shot using IMAX cameras and the film is taking up most of the IMAX screens on its release, much to the annoyance of Tom Cruise whose new Mission Impossible film, Dead Reckoning Part 1, opens just 11 days earlier.
