If the “Oppenheimer” trailers for Christopher Nolan’s film made you feel a little uneasy, you won’t be the only one who was taken aback by the darker tone. Nolan acknowledged that this film was unique in certain ways. Nolan spoke about coming across this unanticipated gloom during post-production in an interview with Wired. “As I started to finish the film,” he remarked, “I started to sense this colour that’s not in my earlier works, simply gloom. I can see it. The movie struggles with it.

Nolan picked up on a phrase Maria Streshinksy mentioned throughout their conversation: nihilism. He was aware that the experience of seeing the movie would be overwhelming. How could it not, really? Just as terrifying as a nuclear weapon

Even if Nolan claims that “Oppenheimer” combats nihilism, there’s no denying that it seems different from his other works. In fact, he showed it to one of his filmmaking friends (he omitted the name of the buddy, though), who stated unequivocally that it was somewhat of a horror picture.

Nolan said, “I don’t disagree.”

But what sort of terror are we referring to?

Don’t interpret those words to suggest that you’ll be seeing “Hereditary” or anything else by Christopher Nolan. Nolan was quite clear about why he believes “Oppenheimer” to be somewhat of a horror film, although the film’s gloomy tone and nihilistic vibe definitely play a part in it.”You know, to be delighted by terrible things is a complex collection of emotions. Which brings us to the terror element,” the filmmaker remarked.

When narrating this narrative, you cannot be careless. Unquestionably great minds created the atom bomb, which transformed the world but ultimately resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. That difficulty is what Nolan is referring to above.

“Oppenheimer” in venues on July 21, 2023.