Christopher Nolan is a modern master of thrillers. This director can take anything as campy as Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies and redefine them into dark, ominous, and bleak films such as his The Dark Knight trilogy. Movies like Memento and Inception dwell deep into audiences’ subconscious. Nolan’s most recent film, Oppenheimer, crafts a biopic that humanizes Robert Oppenheimer, showing audiences the emotional and psychological struggles building the atomic bomb entailed.

Only a few directors have such an uncanny way to depict the gray areas of human behavior in Nolan fashion, one such example is Alfred Hitchcock. Arguably the father of thrillers, Alfred Hitchcock crafted terrifying stories by showing the depths of human depravity and the fragility of the mind. From Psycho, Vertigo, to the Birds, Hitchcock delivered stories that resemble some of Nolan’s greatest cinematic achievements. In the fashion of remakes, perhaps it’s time Christopher Nolan recreated a Hitchcock thriller.

Excellent at Creating Character Studies
Universal Pictures

Both Nolan and Hitchcock deliver thought-provoking character studies throughout their films. In The Dark Knight trilogy, audiences see some of the best Batman villain incarnations; there have been many Joker portrayals throughout the years, but none have shocked audiences like Heath Ledger’s. Ledger’s Joker is conniving, manipulative, and utterly horrifying. Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face is representative of real-life villains, who are often people molded by tragic life circumstances. Selina Kyle represents every person who has ever resorted to crime due to insurmountable shortcomings. Robert Oppenheimer is the byproduct of the men and women surrounding him; he acts accordingly to satisfy their needs and also create something of revolutionary, and catastrophic proportions.

The women in Oppenheimer’s life are both pivotal and expendable fixtures in his life; from Florence Pugh’s Jean Tatlock to Emily Blunt’s Kitty Oppenheimer, both of these women perpetuate Oppenheimer’s emotional availability and guardedness. Inception presents characters that all play a domino effect in their lives, only to discover that their entire existence is irrelevant in the grand scheme of reality. Respectively, Hitchcock gives audiences a compelling look into insanity through Norman Bates, a man who created a split personality to deal with childhood trauma. The Birds gave audiences an entire community’s reaction to a phenomenon outside their control. Marnie explores sexual and psychological repression through its titular character, Marnie.

Related: Oliver Stone Declares Oppenheimer a ‘Classic’ He Never Believed Could Be Made Now

Similar Suspense Style to Hitchcock
Warner Bros. Pictures

Both of these directors have a suspense style that remains unmatched. Interstellar and Inception build up suspense diligently, showing the significance of every decision and interaction that leads up to the film’s climax. Hitchcock built suspense in revolutionary ways, notably with the polemic, Psycho. Dealing with the dying out Hays Code, Hitchcock took bold chances, showed a woman and a man sharing a bed, riddled sexuality throughout the narrative, and then left audiences speechless when Psycho’s seeming protagonist, Marion, is killed midway through the film, shifting the focus to Lila Crane and changing the film’s entire genre.

Vertigo is a nonstop suspense voyage as Scottie goes from one event to the next as he deals with his phobias, traumas, and obsessions. Rope puts audiences in the perspective of its titular antiheroes, Brandon and Phillip, and how they somehow manage to fool all those around them as they conceal their crime. Nolan and Hitchcock films share a breathtaking pattern of suspense through and through.

Related: Should Christopher Nolan Direct a James Bond Movie? Here Is Why We Don’t Think So

Both Directors Explore the Human Psyche
Paramount Pictures

Perhaps the most notable comparison between Nolan’s work, and Hitchcock’s influence in it, is the exploration of the human psyche. Oppenheimer shows the effects of career, sexuality, relationships, and ultimately, betrayal, on Oppenheimer’s mind amidst WW2 America. The Dark Knight shows Harvey Dent’s descent into madness as everything he once stood for crumbles before his very eyes. Inception dwells on the idea of lucidity vs. simulation. Similarly, Hitchcock explores the fragility of the human psyche.

Norman Bates transforms into Mother whenever he’s presented with a woman that stimulates his sexuality; consequently, he becomes detached from reality when he kills. Rope explores the mindset that leads certain individuals to kill, and stresses the detachment effect wealth has on the upper class. Marnie explores the human mind’s reaction to trauma, and how it will alter specific events for self-preservation.

Brings Out Gut-Wrenching Performances From Actors
Universal Pictures

Nolan and Hitchcock carefully picked their ensemble to deliver the best-quality performances. Cillian Murphy has demonstrated his multifaceted acting style, from portraying Jonathan Crane to Robert Oppenheimer. Anne Hathaway gives nuanced performances in both Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises.

Timothée Chalamet delivers a tear-jerking performance during his minimal screen time in Interstellar as a younger Tom, paving the way for his prolific Hollywood career. Hitchcock has Tippi Hedren portray the deceitful and troubled Marnie, and the sophisticated, unsuspecting Melanie. Anthony Perkins gives a career-defining performance as Norman Bates, a man riddled with insecurities, desires, and mental illness. Christopher Nolan and Alfred Hitchcock’s unique way of bringing out raw human emotion is unmatched—Nolan would do Hitchcock justice by adapting one of his cult classics for modern audiences to relish in.