Rory Culkin has never done a TV show like Apple TV's terrifying Nocturne

The Under The Banner Of Heaven actor teases his upcoming crime thriller, which co-stars Stephen Graham and Liev Schrieber.

By Saloni Gajjar  |  October 9, 2026 | 9:00am
Photo: Apple TV
TV Features Nocturne
Rory Culkin has never done a TV show like Apple TV's terrifying Nocturne

Pop culture has some unforgettable fictional serial killers: Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, Patrick Bateman. Arriving in time for Halloween, Apple TV’s disturbing new thriller Nocturne aims to add to that lineup with the vicious Jurek Walters (Stephen Graham). In this Silence Of The Lambs-meets-Mare Of Easttown series, Jurek is locked up in a psychiatric facility in the small town of Fairhaven, PA. But even behind bars in solitary confinement, Jurek’s haunting smile and calculating behavior make him highly dangerous, especially to his new caretaker. 

The first target of Jurek’s devious tactics in Nocturne is the naive, kindhearted Karl (Rory Culkin), who gets a promotion—or demotion, depending on whom you ask—when he’s put in charge of the notorious killer’s daily medication and food. As Karl gradually befriends Jurek, he doesn’t realize how much he’s being manipulated by the maniac. Created by 28 Weeks Later screenwriter Rowan Joffé, the show revels in the tension of whether Jurek might hurt Karl, or whether he merely pities the guy. Nocturne’s escalations drive a striking performance from Culkin, who tells The A.V. Club that it wasn’t merely an “intriguing script” that attracted him to the project.

“The people were what drew me in before I even got into the creative side.” Those people include not only Joffé and Adolescence writer-star Graham but also Emmy-winning director Tim Van Patten and Ray Donovan himself, Liev Schreiber. 

Culkin, who previously starred in Waco and Castle Rock, adds that Nocturne presented a uniquely different challenge. To him, Karl is distinct from, say, Under The Banner Of Heaven‘s religious zealot Samuel Lafferty. “That guy was off his rockers, so it’s nice to be on the other side in Nocturne and be the one looking madness in the eye.”

Created by Joffé and showrunner John Hlavin, Nocturne is based on the 10-book Joona Linna series by Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, the husband-wife duo who publish under the pseudonym Lars Kepler. Relocating the action from Scandinavia to Pennsylvania, Nocturne casts Schreiber as former Philadelphia homicide detective Jonah Lynn, who helped put Jurek behind bars—but at great personal cost. Now, Jonah is roped into a chilling new case, and all the signs pointing to Jurek as the culprit. But how is that possible, with Jurek imprisoned and under constant surveillance? The cop and the killer have it out for each other, two obsessive men now linked by Karl.

As he tiptoes around Jurek to help solve the mystery of a missing girl, Karl is stuck between Jurek and the FBI agents who want the truth. “My initial instinct about playing Karl was to be as pure as possible,” Culkin teases, “because the show explores how aware Karl might be of his purity. Is it something he’s proud of, or does he want to play around with it because Karl is clearly fascinated by Jurek. Maybe it’s because he has a mundane life or doesn’t have time for himself? But being assigned to care for Jurek feels special to him.” 

Culkin compares the dynamic between his and Graham’s characters to someone tending to a beautiful, predatoratory animal: “If it got its paws on me, I would be in a lot of trouble. So for Karl, this job is like being an awful piece of history. It’s like, what if your friend’s uncle was tasked to care for Jeffrey Dahmer? Isn’t it an interesting thing?” The Scream 4 actor adds there were plenty of behind-the-scenes discussions to make sure he, Graham, and Van Patten were on the same page, particularly  when Karl and Jurek are in the same room together. “Most of our scenes are through a small window,” Culkin says, as seen in the exclusive The A.V. Club image above. “But we wanted to keep building the suspense of Karl’s safety,” he adds, referring to when Jurek briefly manages to get his hands on Karl in the tense series premiere. 

Culkin shares most of his scenes with Graham, their characters’ particular circumstances largely keeping him from appearing opposite Schreiber and co-stars Zazie Beetz, Poorna Jagannathan, and Bill Camp as often as he would like. Beetz plays Saga Bauer, an undercover FBI agent who infiltrates the Riverside Psychiatric Facility hoping to get Jurek to warm up to her. Jagannathan portrays determined FBI head honcho Quinn, and Camp is Sheriff Ellison; both team up with Jonah and Saga to bring Jurek down. 

When The A.V. Club spoke to Jagannathan last month, the Lanterns star called Nocturne “a horrifying, scary thriller” whose source material was so frightening, she couldn’t sleep after reading it. Was it the same for Culkin? The actor looked to the books to get a sense of the bigger Nocturne picture, and says what he found there was extremely terrifying. “But I also wanted to go into the show selfishly and only worry about Karl and Jurek, so it doesn’t feel like Karl knows what’s going on outside of Riverside.”

Culkin emphasizes that while Karl seems straitlaced on the surface, he has his demons just like the rest of the show’s protagonists. “The most interesting part of any story is the characters’ motivations. And in this case, no one’s motives are what they seem to be.” 

Nocturne premieres October 30 on Apple TV.

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic. 

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