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.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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