Arguably the most horrific scene of the 2026 Nolan film from the promotional trailer, evoking Goya’s painting Saturn Devouring HIs Son (fair use)

(7) ODYSSEY

Let’s face it – the Odyssey is essentially monstrous survival horror.

And divine survival horror – or slasher horror, with Poseidon as the slasher and Odysseus as the final girl.

As some observed upon watching Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey film, some of its scenes – particularly the Cyclops and Circe, although I think that overlooks the underworld – evoked horror, prompting speculation of Nolan’s untapped potential as a director of horror.

Certainly, however, the original epic evokes much of the same horror as elsewhere in classical mythology, not to mention that it is the literal epic template for horror fiction, as it is for all Western literature.

It prompts to mind the interpretation of Robert Graves that the Odyssey is one underworld scene after another, including the actual descent into the underworld. For that matter, that descent into the underworld – or katabasis – is reminiscent enough of horror, what with setting out the blood for the dead to feed and all. Who are these coming to the sacrifice, indeed…?