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The Odyssey Features The Scariest Scene Christopher Nolan Has Ever Directed

By Nina Starner

July 19, 2026 5:00 pm EST

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Universal Pictures

Don't ask any strange women for stew if you haven't seen "The Odyssey." Major spoilers ahead!_

I've gone on record plenty of times to say that I'm not particularly great when it comes to horror movies — but I'm trying to be less of a baby about anything creepy or even potentially scary. I said as much in a recent piece where my editors politely asked me to watch the original "Evil Dead" film for the first time, and I'm proud to say I survived the experience. When I sat down to watch a screening of "The Odyssey," Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan's take on the ancient Greek poem attributed to Homer, I did not expect to experience a horror movie.

Reader, that's exactly what I got!

If you've seen the movie, you know I'm talking about the scene that introduces the apparent zookeeper and witch Circe (Samantha Morton), but allow me to provide some much-needed context. In Nolan's star-studded adaptation of "The Odyssey," Matt Damon leads the narrative as Odysseus, the long-lost king of Ithaca, husband to Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and father to the nearly grown Telemachus (Tom Holland), who's only "long-lost" in the first place because he decides to take the long way home after winning the Trojan War for the Greeks. Leading his men through dangers that include massive man-eating cannibals and a very hungry Cyclops, Odysseus has royally ticked off his whole crew by the time they get to a beach with a lone hut atop the cliffside. So what do they find in there? A horror movie — and a pretty good one, at that.

The Circe scene in The Odyssey is by far the scariest scene Christopher Nolan has ever crafted

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Universal Pictures

When Odysseus' men, led by his lieutenant Eurylochus (an astonishingly great Himesh Patel), head up to the hilltop to investigate this cabin — that has smoke issuing from its chimney, indicating that someone might be home to welcome them — they find several surprising things during their ascent. Specifically, they find apex predators like lions, tigers, and leopards (not bears), all of which silently observe the soldiers on their trek. When they reach Circe's hut, she's terrified and has no interest in receiving the men, but they ultimately convince her to spare some food. She does, but that's the problem.

As Odysseus hunts down by the shoreline and snipes a deer that immediately_ turns back into the man it once was, his men devour the stew and start turning into actual pigs. The concept of this is scary enough, but Nolan ups the ante and lets the camera linger as Circe's hands break bones and pull skin to literally form pig heads out of their human ones. It's a stomach-churning, viscerally upsetting, and deeply horrifying bit of body horror smack in the middle of an epic action-adventure film, and Nolan's interpretation of Circe's magic has terrifying implications beyond these men once you learn that she does this all the time. Did she have to do the same to the deer? The lion? The caged bird in her home, which we eventually learn is her own sister? Odysseus ends up convincing her to turn his men back into humans, but trust me when I tell you Circe's process will linger in your mind long after Patel and the rest turn back into regular guys.

Come on, Christopher Nolan: direct a horror movie already

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Universal Pictures

What's particularly amazing about the frightening Circe sequence in "The Odyssey," brief as it may be, is that it follows a different_ scary scene. The first trial Odysseus and his men encounter, which I alluded to earlier, is with Polyphemus, the cyclops (played by Bill Irwin). After following a flock of sheep into an empty cave, Odysseus and his men are ambushed by Polyphemus as he returns home for the day and blocks the entrance with a massive stone; in the process, he eats a whole bunch of Greek soldiers. This entire sequence is tense, terrifying, and will have you on the edge of your seat. and then, once you've recovered, you get hit with the Circe scene not long after. They may not be truly back-to-back, but these scary scenes in "The Odyssey" handily prove that Nolan understands the precise, gripping timing of a great horror film.

Mr. Nolan, I'd like to address you directly. Can I call you Chris? I feel like I can. Anyway, you should direct an honest-to-goodness horror movie. A tense, terrifying horror movie with some well-placed jump scares like "Get Out" or "Weapons" (two movies I will admit are personal favorites, but hey — they're also both really good). Get Samantha Morton on the phone and book her as your villain so she can mount an Amy Madigan-style Oscar campaign, give Zendaya a bigger role this time, and make something scary. If you do? I'll be there on opening day.

"The Odyssey" is in theaters now.