Editorials
From Calm to Carnal: Looking at Cillian Murphy in the Horror Genre
Cillian Murphy plays the lead character in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. An amazing actor in a movie that Nolan himself called “kind of a horror movie“? We’ll take it.
So, in that spirit we thought we’d take a stroll through the Peaky Blinders actor’s resume in both the thriller and horror genres. Hell, the last time Nolan and Murphy worked together they created one of the best horror aspects of The Dark Knight trilogy with the Scarecrow character!
Let’s take a look through Cillian Murphy’s career in the horror/thriller genres…
28 Days Later (2002)
For many of us, 28 Days Later was our introduction to Cillian Murphy. Our full frontal introduction to Cillian Murphy. The camera pans down on a naked man in a hospital bed who wakes up (after presumably being hit by a car) to absolute nothingness. Everything and almost everyone has been wiped out by a plague that turns its victims into rage fueled maniac zombies. Then we watch him navigate this new hellscape of a world that is his sudden reality.
A theme you’ll notice as we go forth with Cillian Murphy’s horror career is the dichotomy of his characters. Many of them start out meek, unintimidating, thoughtful and calm. By film’s end however, they may be maniacal, terrifying or just plain desperate characters with violently emotional outbursts. None better than 28 Days Later where we watch a man come to grips with the death of his parents and the entire world. Yet, manages somehow to keep his composure, grace and empathy for the humans around him. By the third act however, we’ll see Jim’s madness understandably devolve into him running through hallways like a kid on Christmas in Hell. Shirtless, covered in blood and laughing gleefully while murdering soldiers.
The amazing and personal performance Murphy put together in 28 Days Later instantly had me thinking “This is a guy who really stands out. I’m going to follow and see what he does.”
So, let’s see what he did from there…
Red Eye (2005)
In one of horror master Wes Craven’s most underrated movies, Cillian Murphy gives yet another underrated performance as Jackson Rippner; a political hitman who desperately needs a political figure to switch hotel rooms so they can carry out a hit on him and his family. So, he decides to trap the hotel Manager Lisa (Rachel McAdams) on a public flight and blackmail her – with the threat of the murder of her Father (Brian Cox) – to call and have his room switched to the one they can shoot a grenade launcher into.
The beauty of Cillian Murphy in Red Eye is the duality of the roles he gets to play. He first charms Lisa with conversation at the airport. He talks her into having a few friendly drinks and gets to know things about her. Things he’ll later use to toy with her emotions. It’s strange because you can definitely tell there is something sinister beneath the surface but he’s just being so damn nice that you can’t put a finger on it. Once on the airplane you can see Lisa start to become fond of him and put her guard down. Which makes it all the more demeaning and uncomfortable when he flips the switch. Suddenly he drops the act all at once in a very Edward Norton in Primal Fear-esque type moment.
Watching his character have to put on and take off the nice guy mask over and over again any time a stewardess or flight member intrudes on them is as fascinating as the main plot itself. When the frustration mounts and his mask of sanity is about to slip, the character adds yet another layer. Eventually, we basically get to watch him play a version of Scream’s Ghostface; in a full frenzy, chasing Lisa around a suburban home with a hole in his windpipe. Murphy goes from romcom lead, to Hans Gruber, to Patrick Bateman all in the span of an 85 minute thriller.
Sunshine (2007)
Another movie that isn’t horror in its purest form. Sure. But don’t tell me being trapped in a spaceship with a lack of oxygen and the fate of the world on your shoulders while a dude who’s been dipped in the literal sun is chasing you like Michael Myers on meth isn’t scary.
In Director Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, Cillian Murphy plays a Physicist named Robert Capa aboard a spaceship called Icarus II; the earth’s last hope to save a dying sun by dropping a huge bomb inside of it to re-ignite it. After everything that can go wrong does, Boyle decides he too wants to fly too close to the sun (spoiler incoming). The movie takes a jarring genre pivot into slasher territory when a character named Pinbacker (Mark Strong), previously thought to be dead, shows up dropping bodies and chasing Capa around the spaceship. Some will call this twist too much but count me as one of those who found it to be the most exhilarating part of the film.
Sunshine is yet another movie in Murphy’s filmography where you experience the film through his eyes. At first he’s calm, calculated and peaceful amidst a crew of heightened personalities. By the end however, he’s absolutely manic. The movie isn’t just telling us “Hey, this situation really, really sucks!” We can tell because the dude who was calm as a cucumber dangling off the side of a spaceship five minutes ago is now screaming bloody murder and losing his goddamn mind. It’s pure versatility on the part of Cillian Murphy that gets the movie where it needs to go.
Retreat (2011)
Retreat is a film I’m shocked I had never even heard of until now (it’s streaming for free on Crackle currently). Not expecting much, I found an original thriller with some interesting twists that touched on multiple horror sub genres. In the film, Martin (Murphy) and his wife Kate (Thandiwe Newton) head to a remote island to try and rekindle their relationship after a tragedy. An island so remote that the Airbnb host has to take a long ass boat ride to get to you if anything goes wrong. Suddenly a stranger named Jack (Jamie Bell) shows up with a head wound. They take him in and he informs them that back on the mainland a horrible virus has broken out. Immediate contact with anyone will result in almost instant and painful death. They must board up the entire house and live in this post apocalyptic world together, fending off anyone who comes near.
The problem is Jack is extremely sketchy and they have no way to confirm if anything he’s saying is true. First polite, he’s now ordering the couple around and making suggestive comments towards Kate. He’s very quickly put them in a horrifying situation whether he’s telling the truth or not. Meanwhile, their relationship issues start to surface under the stress of it all and throw emotional fuel on the fire like some sort of hellish version of MTV’s Real World.
While Retreat definitely has some elements of movies like They Come at Night or 10 Cloverfield Lane, it most reminds me of 1971’s Straw Dogs. Cillian Murphy’s Martin is very much like Dustin Hoffman’s in that he’s a passive man in the face of an intrusive and physically superior one. He decides to try to use his brain over violence. His wife quickly loses patience as he seemingly allows this stranger to take control of their lives.
Murphy, ever the good sport, lets Martin take a judgmental beating from both his wife and the audience for his meek response before everything hits a head and multiple truths are revealed. I’m sensing a major theme here that Cillian Murphy goes into these roles with absolutely no ego. In turn, his character journeys feel earned and honest. Retreat is no different.
Red Lights (2012)
Red Lights is weird. Listen to this plot synopsis and tell me it doesn’t sound like the coolest movie ever.
Robert DeNiro plays Simon Silver, a world famous travelling psychic healer. Think Steve Martin in Leap of Faith but with a dark, cold, paranormal twist and the narcissistic personality of your standard cult leader. Sigourney Weaver plays a noted scientific skeptic of all things paranormal who pairs up with Cillian Murphy’s character (a physicist) to form whatever the opposite of the Ghostbusters would be called. Some days they go to folks’ homes who believe they are haunted and catch them lying or disprove their paranormal worries with plausible explanations. Other days they work with the police to catch false prophets and fake healers in the act. Eventually their paths cross with Silver and Cillian Murphy’s character believes he is being psychologically and telepathically stalked by him.
That cast (which also features Elizabeth Olsen) and that plot sounds beyond amazing! For many, it apparently sounded too amazing as the end product was ultimately underwhelming for many viewers and critics. For better or worse, Rodrigo Cortes’ (Buried) Red Lights is one of the oddest movies I’ve ever seen. Extremely over the top in terms of drama and each of the actors (specifically Murphy and Weaver) really go for it in terms of chewing the scenery and letting their emotions burst at the seams. The narrative is a little hard to follow and the plot has a solid case of the ole’ ADHD. One minute you’re watching a stylish and earnest deep dive into skepticism of the paranormal and the next a pulpy thriller where dead birds keep hitting windows and characters are being jump scared by the homeless. It feels a little like one of those 2000’s Dimension films where the Weinsteins would demand sensationalist reshoots featuring more action and death.
Personally, I find Red Lights to be a deeply flawed yet one of a kind and weird little movie with some wild performances by a fascinating cast. Specifically, Cillian Murphy who lets it all hang out here like an emo kid in a Taking Back Sunday mosh pit after the worst week of his life and two Red Bulls. I love it. But it’s an acquired taste.
A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
Cillian Murphy clearly knows how to pick interesting characters with multiple layers and is certainly not afraid to be disliked. This may be the exact reason why we’re always happy to see him in a film yet have no idea what the part will entail. Will we hate the character? Just how fucked up is he going to be? Part of his job as Emmett for at least half A Quiet Place Part II is to be the opposite of the man Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) was. You know, the sweet and charismatic guy we just watched sacrifice himself to be brutally ripped apart to save his small children? The exact type of role that many leading men would be reluctant to play. Murphy once again sniffed out something fascinating about the character and A Quiet Place Part II was all the better for it.
When the family stumbles across Emmet’s industrial-like shelter they find him to be a broken man. He lost his children the day of the attack and his wife to sickness just weeks ago. He’s not a great host when they show up. As a matter of fact he’s what you’d call a “total dick.” But a subtle script and a communicative performance from Murphy will have you understanding quite quickly that he simply blames himself for not being able to save his own family. So, when the Abbotts show up he completely shuts down at the thought of being responsible for their safety. He doesn’t want to let them down too. It’s a performance that without emotional nuance would just be some asshole screaming “I ain’t got enough food for you now get out!” to a woman, her newborn baby and two kids. Instead, Murphy overcomes all this to create a complicated and imperfect but emotionally intelligent character the audience can empathize with.
Watching his character redeem himself by succeeding in helping others where he could not help his own family becomes the most necessary element in making A Quiet Place Part II not just feel like an “in between” film. Plus, he looks really handsome with a post-apocalyptic beard. Good for him.
Thanks for reading and here’s hoping Oppenheimer puts yet another feather in Cillian Murphy’s horror hat. Speaking of hats and finger knives… he’d make a pretty solid Freddy Krueger if I may say so myself. Just sayin’. Who knows. Maybe it’ll happen someday.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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