The Good Nurse writer on “truly terrifying” Eddie Redmayne scene
Krysty Wilson-Cairns tells RadioTimes.com why one scene in the film is so potent.
New film The Good Nurse – which is currently playing in select UK cinemas before joining Netflix next week – is by no means your stereotypical serial killer thriller.
The film stars Jessica Chastain as Amy Loughren, an overworked nurse who slowly begins to realise that her friend and colleague Charles Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) is responsible for a number of mysterious deaths at the hospital where they both work.
It is based on a chilling true story, and screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns recently explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com why they decided not to sensationalise it in any way – and how that ensured one scene featuring Redmayne was all the more terrifying.
"In the beginning, you sort of want to fall into these thriller or horror tropes," she explained of the adaptation process. "Like, you want there to be this and that, because you've been so saturated by these movies all your life, and very rarely does one break the convention of that."
On this occasion, however, Wilson-Cairns wanted to keep the truth in the script as much as possible, and this more grounded, pared-back approach was endorsed by director Tobias Lindholm.
"We shared that vision, and he wanted to take it to its absolute limit. He was like, what if we put in nothing invented? Like, what if we don't add anything for horror? What if we just let the fact that this happened, and the silence and the oppression of these sorts of conversations... they're gonna be terrifying.
"And that was really, I think, the core of letting this be a real and terrifying drama. There's so little violence in it, there's almost no gore, apart from like, the medical stuff that you see at hospitals."
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She added: "I've watched it a couple of times now with audiences, and the diner scene when Charles slams his hand down – the sort of reaction that you get, because there's so little violence, those moments of it, those glimpses become truly terrifying.
"And that's a combination of fantastic acting from Eddie and Jessica and unbelievable direction from Tobias."
Read more: Eddie Redmayne: 'You must find the humanity and trauma in monsters'
The Good Nurse is showing in select cinemas now and will be available to watch on Netflix on 26th October. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Film hub for the latest news.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
