Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley is currently available to stream on HBO Max and Hulu. It is also available to rent or buy via Amazon.com
The movie is also now available on 4K Ultra-HD, Blu-ray and DVD. Special features:
Del Toro’s Neo-Noir – Writer-director Guillermo del Toro and his standout cast decipher the dark, complicated world of Nightmare Alley. The filmmaker reveals how his take on noir is rooted in classic cinema but offers an accessible, modern narrative.
Beneath the Tarp – Production designer Tamara Deverell and her talented team skillfully delivered both a decaying travelling carnival world and a gilded Art Deco high society with striking visuals. We explore how this design supported del Toro’s genre-bending filmmaking.
What Exists in the Fringe – Costume designer Luis Sequeira unravels his collaboration with Guillermo del Toro and reveals the symbolism that’s constantly at play in the film’s carefully crafted wardrobe design.
Searchlight Pictures has posted an extended preview online to coincide with the disc releases:
Here’s our previous coverage of the film:
‘Man or Beast.’
Nightmare Alley is a 2021 American psychological thriller film about a young carny with a talent for manipulating people using keywords. He hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water; Crimson Peak; Pan’s Labyrinth; Cronos) from a screenplay co-written with Kim Morgan (The Forbidden Room). The movie is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham which was previously adapted for the screen in 1947 as a well-regarded film noir starring Tyrone Power.
The Searchlight Pictures-Double Dare You (DDY) co-production stars Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Paul Anderson, Bradley Cooper, Mary Steenburgen, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe and Ron Perlman.
Reviews:
“Del Toro occasionally gets lost in giving every emotional beat room to breathe and grow, causing pacing lulls in the middle […] Those hoping for conventional, fatalistic noir will come away disappointed; this wholly bears del Toro’s imprint and penchant for stylistic flourishes, symbolism, and melancholic romance. It’s not the filmmaker’s strongest effort, yet it’s still a soaring spectacle that casts a spell.” Bloody Disgusting
“Just a few notes away from perfection with lapses in pacing in the first act, Nightmare Alley is a film that turns in on itself, twisting under its own weight to reveal one of the most satisfying endings I’ve seen. Baked in noir and dripping in the dirtiest parts of humanity, it’s a del Toro film like you haven’t seen before.” Buy Why Tho?
” …Nightmare Alley is a strikingly gorgeous, expertly-constructed work that does not go down easy, and is only recommended to those with strong constitutions. The movie’s biggest flaw is its inflated running time, mainly devoted to intricate details of the con game. It’s interesting stuff, but it’s a very long time to sit with the Stan character as our main entryway; he is thoroughly repellent from top to bottom.” Combustible Celluloid
” …yet another winner from del Toro, a director who loves the weird, the strange, the wicked, the perverse. Del Toro is perhaps a touch too romantic for this kind of pitch-black material, but it’s impossible not to get swept up in the thrills and chills of Nightmare Alley.” /Film
” …one of the first films that Guillermo del Toro has made that doesn’t include any monsters or creatures or fantasy or magic, but that doesn’t make it any less captivating. Especially because, above all, the story here means something. And it’s always so easy to watch del Toro’s films. He knows how to make every single shot look so detailed and evocative. He knows how to cast and bring some of the best performances out of his actors.” First Showing
“Cate Blanchett is outstandingly icy and just as mischievous, but this is still Bradley Cooper’s show. He has a line in this movie so hauntingly and twistedly delivered in pitch-black gallows humor context; it transcends the performance from great to extraordinary. Even with a telegraphed ending, the road Nightmare Alley takes to get there is filled with uncertainty, suspense, exhilarating violence…” Flickering Myth
” …there aren’t that many surprises to be had (even acknowledging that most audiences will be completely unfamiliar with the Tyrone-Power-headliner from the ‘40s, which itself was somewhat predictable), resulting in a comparably unsatisfying, bleak tragedy that, while effectively shedding itself of the film noir classification, isn’t a work of much potency beyond the unsettling finale.” Gone with the Twins
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