Christopher Nolan’s Lost Horror Masterpiece ‘Tarantella’ Streaming Free!

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In the late 1980s, a young man who would later create acclaimed films like “Memento”, “The Dark Knight” and the Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer”, spent his weekends shooting an eerie, 8 mm short horror film titled “Tarantella”. This film, only five minutes long, was so unsettling that it could have fit seamlessly into David Lynch’s darkest movie collection. For over three decades, this film was believed to be lost until it resurfaced on YouTube in 2021, but was quickly removed due to copyright issues. Now, the film has reappeared on YouTube via The Great Cinema’s channel, and fans should definitely watch it before it disappears again.

If you found the micro-budgeted viral hit “Skinamarink” unsettling due to its experimental approach rather than logical narrative, then you’ll find Nolan’s early work, which demonstrates the potential of minimal resources, a compelling watch. It offers a stark contrast to the mega-budget blockbusters he later became associated with.

In approximately four and a half minutes, the short film, aptly titled Tarantella, delves into the restless world of a young man haunted by nightmarish images of towering spiders and sinister figures darting through shadowy corridors. The chilling narrative is further intensified by the gritty 8mm cinematography, rapid-sequence editing that mimics a fevered state, giving it a distinctly Lynchian dreamlike quality. Without dialogue, the film’s eerie soundscape provides an ambient yet ominous backdrop, while Nolan’s strategic use of abrupt cuts in this fragmented narrative has become synonymous with his style, as seen in films such as Memento and Inception.

How ‘Tarantella’ Set Christopher Nolan on the Road to Greatness

Together with his high school friend Roko Belic, who later became an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, Christopher Nolan co-directed the project. Belic is one of the stars in the movie along with Jonathan Nolan, Christopher’s brother. The small group worked on the movie whenever they had free time, using cameras and sound equipment that were borrowed. After being shown in a limited capacity at the end of the 1980s, the short film disappeared, as many do.

Based on what’s stated in the description of the YouTube video, collector Henry Adams discovered an original copy in 2021 and posted it briefly online before it was taken down due to copyright issues. At the moment, this film is available on a YouTube channel with only 22 subscribers, under the username Tarantella. Given that it has few viewers, if you’re interested in watching it, you should act quickly as it might not be accessible for long.

Although Tarantella may not resemble the polished movies Nolan creates today, that was never its purpose. Instead, it represents a raw, imaginative work from the budding filmmaker who would later become one of the world’s most respected directors. This short film offers a unique glimpse into some of the early filmmaking techniques that Nolan later integrated into his professional career. Given this, Tarantella is certainly worth five minutes of your time, but you must act swiftly to watch it before it disappears once more from public view.

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2025-04-17 14:07