It’s been just about 20 years since the late Wes Craven directed suspense thriller Red Eye, a taut tale of a woman (Rachel McAdams) who gets kidnapped by a charming stranger (Cillian Murphy) on a routine flight. Threatened by the potential murder of her father in the 2005 movie, she’s pulled into a plot to assist her captor in a political assassination.

Wes Craven fans have come to appreciate Red Eye even more today than they did back in 2005, but one person who’s not the biggest fan of the movie is star Cillian Murphy.

Murphy tells GQ in a new chat, “I love Rachel McAdams and we had fun making [Red Eye]. But I don’t think it’s a good movie. It’s a good B movie.”

This isn’t the first time in recent years that Cillian Murphy has reflected on Red Eye. Chatting with Uproxx back in 2021, he seemed appreciative – but bewildered by – the love for the film.

He told the site in 2021, “The honest answer is I haven’t seen that movie since it came out like 15 or 16 years ago, whenever it was. I also think that, when I was a younger actor, I was really, really hard on everything that I was in. I hated watching myself. I hated looking at myself on screen. I remember when I saw it was like “Oh, that’s kind of a schlocky B movie. Rachel McAdams is excellent in it.” But I didn’t think I gave a very nuanced performance in it.”

“But, listen, if people love the movie then that’s great. I’m pleased with that,” Murphy added at the time. “I’m less hard on myself now when I look at stuff. I’m less hypercritical of my work. But that’s probably a hangover from that to be honest.”

It’s interesting to note that Wes Craven himself was a big fan of what he was able to accomplish with Red Eye. Chatting with Hollywood.com back in 2005, in fact, he remarked that Red Eye was his own personal favorite movie out of all the movies he directed. Craven told the site, “It’s closest to the kind of movie I would have made had I not gone down the horror trail.”

He continued, “Everything just seemed to flow together in a really cool way. I think the actors are terrific, the cinematography is great. Everybody just clicked and we were going 90 miles per hour all the time and felt good about it.”

Meagan Navarro celebrated 15 years of Red Eye here on BD back in 2020. She wrote, “Red Eye is a pared-back thriller existing outside the bounds of the director’s typical horror offerings. The film delivers on the thrills, but it’s exemplary of Craven’s strengths and gives a glimpse of what he could’ve done had he gotten to play outside of the genre more often. A simple premise that threatens to plummet into silliness is always pulled back from the brink by two riveting performances and an experienced director who understands what’s most important.”