10 Fascinating Backstories Behind Famous Movies

7. Inception Was Initially Envisoned As A Full-On Horror Film

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Warner Bros

Inception is perhaps best categorized as a "sci-fi heist movie," but writer/director Christopher Nolan - who worked on his script for more than a decade - didn't always intend for it to fall into such genre trappings.

That's right: Inception started life, instead, as a horror movie.

The original version of the Leonardo DiCaprio movie would've likened the film to something like Jacob's Ladder; a film bent on Cobb's inner angst, expressed through disturbing dreams.

Imagine the possibilities... Dream layers riddled with horrifically-rendered monsters, as opposed to Bond-esque set-pieces. It's almost not worth thinking about.

Ultimately, the filmmaker decided that his idea about "dream-stealers" was better suited to the likes of a heist film, and reworked the script, removing much of the nightmarish darkness that clouded those early drafts.

Elements of the horror genre remain in the final film, of course; the scene in which Mal, Cobb's wife, confronts him in an apartment towards the end of the film is genuinely terrifying, and gives us a neat peek at what could've been had Nolan ultimately decided to take Inception down the truly frightening filmic route.

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.