One of the most terrifying movie moments I can recall happens at the very end of the 2008 horror movie Eden Lake and involves Jack O’Connell‘s face. After an entire movie of torment at the hands of O’Connell’s character Brett and his gang of violent delinquents, protagonist Jenny believes she has escaped to a normal home — only to discover the family she is hiding with is Brett’s As they violently assault her, Brett deletes the evidence from his phone and stares impassively into a mirror.
In that one, inscrutable moment, O’Connell packs so much into his apparently expressionless face. It’s a stark depiction of the desensitisation of a generation and an almost unbearably bleak final note for a film that has already piled a fair amount of misery on its audience. But, most importantly, it’s a moment that marked O’Connell out as a very special talent — and a particularly gifted villain.
O’Connell has had a strange and circuitous career, but he has some eye-catching roles on the way in 2025. Firstly, he’s portraying the Irish villain Remmick in Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror Sinners, before taking on the mysterious part of shadowy cult leader Sir Jimmy Crystal in Danny Boyle’s long-awaited zombie sequel 28 Years Later.
By the time Eden Lake arrived, O’Connell was already on the up. He’d shone in a potentially silly role as a teen with a bladder condition in BBC drama Waterloo Road and made the most of a small part in Shane Meadows’ incendiary drama This Is England. Just after Eden Lake, he got his biggest role yet as Skins’ violent and unpredictable womaniser Cook.
These early roles showcased the rawness of O’Connell’s undeniable talent. Born in Derbyshire, he had a troubled youth that resulted in a criminal record, which disqualified him from military service. But, during his teenage years, he attended the free Television Workshop in Nottingham and his talent was soon noticed.
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O’Connell’s acting never comes across as studied. There’s something about him that feels as if it is constantly simmering, ready to explode out of at any moment. He’s the sort of screen presence who never allows you to feel truly comfortable, so it’s no surprise that many of his roles have revolved around dangerous loose cannons. But he never allows the people he plays to become caricatures. He’s a much more nuanced actor than that.
This is certainly true of the 2013 movie Starred Up, which gave O’Connell one of his first big screen leading roles. He plays a violent young offender who is transferred to adult prison, where he finds himself on the same wing as his father, played by Ben Mendelsohn. What could easily have become a cliché prison movie is elevated to something unusually sensitive by O’Connell, who is able to convey the idea of a young man trying to improve himself, without ever losing that violent unpredictability that sits simmering underneath.
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These skills also made O’Connell perfect for the role of terrorist Kyle Budwell in the thriller Money Monster. Budwell takes a TV finance expert played by George Clooney hostage live on air, fitting him with an explosive vest and demanding answers for why he lost money on an investment Clooney’s character had backed.
Again, O’Connell’s unpredictability is an asset. He and Clooney build a quasi-trusting relationship throughout the narrative, with O’Connell showcasing the open wounds of emotional vulnerability within the character. But crucially, there’s always the sense of a hair-trigger — a temper that could lead to violence and death.
This nuance certainly came to play in 2024 when O’Connell took on the role of Blake Fielder-Civil in Back to Black — the story of Amy Winehouse. We see Blake through the eyes of Amy, so he’s a charming, intoxicating, and definitely tameable bad boy. But this is a Jack O’Connell performance, so the actor maintains that essential darkness behind his eyes — a darkness that is necessary in portraying the malign influence Blake often appeared to be on Amy’s life.
In the hands of O’Connell, Blake became something easy for the audience to understand. He was the flame, while Amy was the moth drawn to his heat — however dangerous he was.
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Now, O’Connell looks set to bring his trademark nuance and mercurial sense of danger to Sinners, in which he plays the leader of a trio of musicians. They turn up at the opening night of a juke joint and soon raise blood-spraying chaos, driven by the way their own homeland has been taken from them. In The Independent‘s review, O’Connell’s performance is described as carrying “a vicious, bruised charm”. So far, so O’Connell.
Much less is known about Sir Jimmy Crystal — the cult leader O’Connell plays in 28 Years Later. However, the character is said to have a “dark past” and, if the playbook is Christopher Eccleston’s twisted soldier from the original film, then this could be another horrifying O’Connell role.
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But, as we’ve learned over the years, we can expect something far more than generic villainy when O’Connell is involved. He has shown himself to be arguably the finest British actor of his generation, whether he’s playing a teenage boy wetting himself in a classroom, a terrorist in a TV studio, or a vampire in the Deep South.
Years have passed since that enigmatic, chilling final shot of Eden Lake, but the actor behind it hasn’t lost any of his ability to surprise audiences. He’s still as unpredictable and enthralling as ever.
Sinners is in UK cinemas from 18 April. 28 Years Later will be released on 20 June.
