Christopher Nolan Is Just Like Us: He Also Is Obsessed With This Year’s Horror Hit

Christopher Nolan just debuted the biggest project of his 25-year career. He is also, it turns out, still buying tickets and enjoying the cinematic spectacles his peers push out like the rest of us mortals.

Sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss The Odyssey, which took $264 million worldwide in its opening weekend, Nolan was asked whether the film’s monster sequences had finally satisfied the fans who have spent years pitching him to do a horror movie.

Unexpectedly, Nolan said that The Odyssey actually “very much whets my appetite for more.”

Then he named the film that has him thinking about doing something with the genre down the line: Curry Barker’s Obsession — the movie we’ve all been collectively obsessed with this year.

Nolan has never been afraid of dipping his toes in the genre. As he explained to THR, the only obstacle is a viable premise. “Horror as a genre has to be approached very carefully from a conceptual point of view,” he said. “In other words, you have to have an amazing idea. When you go see a film like Obsession, that’s an amazing idea. That movie works like a mother**ker.”

Yes, that’s a Christopher Nolan quote now. The man does not usually talk like this.

And he is hardly the only heavyweight in that camp. On a red carpet for Disclosure Day last month, Steven Spielberg told Deadline he had seen Barker’s film and loved it, applauding both Barker and Backrooms director Kane Parsons for what they pulled off with almost no money.

Nolan said much the same thing to The Telegraph earlier this month, saying that the two directors and what they’ve managed to achieve is a sign that the industry is heading somewhere healthy.

A $750,000 movie that refuses to leave the spotlight

Barker spent years building a following on a YouTube sketch channel he co-created with Cooper Tomlinson, before the pair made the found-footage feature Milk & Serial for around $800. His first theatrical feature premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025 and was picked up by Focus Features for roughly $14 million.

Shot for $750,000 across 20 days, it opened May 15 and has since cleared $400 million globally, making it the highest-grossing film ever produced for under $1 million before any inflation adjustment. (per NBC News)

Whether Nolan ever shoots his own horror film is still an open question — by his own admission, he’s only waiting for a good idea. There’s a catch, however. Nolan has also recently revealed that his next movie is “at least” three years away. Shooting The Odyssey really took something out of him and his crew. So even if that idea arrives tomorrow, it’ll likely take a while before he scares anyone with it.

(featured image: The Daily Show/YouTube)

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