Dani Kessel Odom (they/them) is an autistic lead writer and TV critic who covers sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and Pluribus, fantasy shows like The Magicians and Percy Jackson, and horror of all kinds. They also cover Marvel and DC TV shows and movies, with a robust knowledge of comic books. Their TV reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.
Dani is also part of ScreenRant’s books team, using their fiction writing and literature studies as the backbone for their book analyses.
They have covered events, such as the Denver Fan Expo. Professionals in the field, such as Damien Leone and Lucy Hale, have shared their articles. Their review of Ponies was quoted in the show’s TV trailer.
In university, they majored in English Writing with a minor in psychology. They have always had a passion for analyzing TV and movies, even taking filmography and scriptwriting classes in university. They also studied and participated in onstage and onscreen acting extensively from the ages of 7 to 18.
Aside from working at Screen Rant, Dani has worked as a freelance editor and writer over the past decade, often in a ghostwriting capacity.
This article includes discussions of torture and murder and contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Nocturne!
Apple TV’s Nocturne introduces serial killer Jurek Walter, a villain with real-life inspirations that make him feel more chilling. Serial killer thrillers aren’t uncommon, but not all are as propulsive and gripping as Nocturne. The show pits Jonah, Saga, and Alexandra against Jurek Walter in a cat-and-mouse dynamic. Viewers constantly have to re-evaluate who’s really in control—the team of investigators and FBI agents or the institutionalized serial killer. From the premiere episodes, it’s clear that, more often than not, the answer is probably Jurek.
As I said in my review of Nocturne on ScreenRant, Jurek Walter is the single biggest strength of the Apple TV show. He’s a murderer who meticulously plans crimes, leaves little to no evidence, and knows exactly how to manipulate others into doing his bidding. With an almost expert-level understanding of the human mind, the villain has an uncanny ability to make others do exactly what he wants, like getting the man in the next cell over to die by suicide or getting Karl to deliver a letter.
His polite, intelligent, soft-spoken demeanor masks his sadistic nature. This underlying cruelty is most obvious in his disturbing M.O. of burying people alive with just enough food and water to survive for a while. Jurek doesn’t just kill them. He psychologically tortures them. Much like Hannibal Lecter, the villain’s spiritual predecessor, Jurek Walter has real-life roots that make him even more disturbing.
Jurek Walter Is A Composite Of Many Real-Life Serial Killers
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Courtesy of Apple TV</figure>
Nocturne‘s Jurek Walter is disturbingly realistic, and viewers may wonder whether he’s based on a real serial killer. Technically, he isn’t. No single serial killer inspired authors Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril when they were writing the character for the Nordic noir story The Sandman. Instead, they built the fictional villain through extensive research into real serial killers.
The authors told The Real Book Spy that they read the most up-to-date research, with a special focus on highly intelligent, strategic serial killers. In this way, Jurek Walter is much more like a composite of murderers from our world. The authors also relied on experts, interviewing law enforcement investigators, medical professionals like doctors and psychiatrists, and people in the multidisciplinary field of criminology. They told The Real Book Spy they believe that authenticity is essential to a great crime story.
Then, they filtered their fears into the serial killer. Alexander said, “Jurek Walter was so real to us during the writing process that Alexandra had nightmares about him almost every night.” Ultimately, the onscreen iteration of the character is just as chilling as the book version, so viewers may find themselves in the same boat as Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril.
How Stephen Graham Made Jurek Walter Feel So Real
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Courtesy of Apple TV</figure>
Folks who know Stephen Graham’s roles in Adolescence or Boardwalk Empire might not recognize the actor in Nocturne because he physically transformed for the role. The closest he has ever looked to Jurek Walter is in the 2006 movie This Is England and the Disney+ boxing TV show A Thousand Blows. Even those characters have a less menacing physicality than Nocturne‘s serial killer. He explained his process of becoming the character to Entertainment Weekly, saying this:
For [Jurek Walter], I wanted to try and change my shape. I wanted to look like, if I wanted to, I could kill you with my bare hands. I didn’t want to be massive, because there’s no weights for him to lift in that cell. So we looked at it from the perspective of, ‘What could he be doing in that cell that would give him that strength, and what kind of things would he be eating?’
For [Jurek Walter], I wanted to try and change my shape. I wanted to look like, if I wanted to, I could kill you with my bare hands. I didn’t want to be massive, because there’s no weights for him to lift in that cell. So we looked at it from the perspective of, ‘What could he be doing in that cell that would give him that strength, and what kind of things would he be eating?’
The actor also wanted Jurek Walter to have a soft, lilting voice that he could use to control people around him. To reinforce Jurek as a manipulator, Graham worked with an acting coach to capture the character’s chameleon-like quality, where he can slip back and forth between sympathetic and calculated at a moment’s notice.
Finally, Graham got into the character’s mind by exploring Jurek Walter’s upbringing and past. He told EW he doesn’t think anyone’s born evil. Instead, their environment and society mold them into that person. So he wanted to know what Jurek went through to make him a killer. By viewing the character as a human being instead of an inhuman monster, he makes Jurek feel like a real person instead of a two-dimensional villain. That ounce of realism is what makes Nocturne‘s Jurek Walter one of the most terrifying psychological thriller villains.
Nocturne
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Liev Schreiber
Jonah Lynn
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Zazie Beetz
FBI Agent Saga Bauer
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Jurek Walter
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Landon Valentin
Michael Frost
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