Since his 1993 debut “Cronos,” it’s always been explicit that Guillermo del Toro is a genre filmmaker at heart. Over the years, the director has tackled several different kinds of horror films. He’s done vampires in “Cronos” and 2002’s “Blade II” and gothic horror in 2001’s “Devil’s Backbone” and 2015’s “Crimson Peak.” He’s also done variations on the creature feature in 1997’s “Mimic,” 2013’s kaiju film “Pacific Rim,” and finally in his 2017 romance, “The Shape Of Water, which won the director a Golden Lion at Venice and Best Director and Best Picture at the Oscars.
Now, to follow up all of the accolades that film collected, del Toro ventures into another genre dimension entirely: the hard-boiled underbelly of film-noir. “Nightmare Alley,” based on a 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, follows a scheming carnival barker who gets involved with a psychiatrist who may be just as manipulative as he is—and possibly more dangerous (read our review of the film here).
The film may have supposedly tanked at the box office recently in its limited release opening, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching.
Bradley Cooper stars as Stanton “The Great Stanton” Carlisle opposite Cate Blanchett‘s Dr. Lilith Ritter. The ensemble cast also stars Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, and David Strathairn. Ron Perlman, a del Toro regular, leads supporting players with Holt McCallany, Tim Blake Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, and Clifton Collins Jr., and more also on board.
Edmund Goulding made “Nightmare Alley” into a film already in 1947, but del Toro wanted to revisit the noir and give it a hard-R rating. Del Toro co-wrote the screenplay with Kim Morgan, known for her film writing and work on Guy Maddin‘s 2015 film “The Forbidden Room.” Dan Lausten, who’s worked with del Toro on “Mimic,” “Crimson Peak,” and “The Shape Of Water,” returns as director of photography. Alexandre Desplat, who won Best Original Score at the Oscars for his work on “The Shape Of Water,” returns to score “Nightmare Alley.”
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“Nightmare Alley” is in theaters now via Searchlight Pictures and while the box office was quiet, it still features an all-star cast and looks worth checking out. Check out a new clip from the film below.
Update: a second clip from the film has arrived.