Nightmare Alley (2021 film)

Nightmare Alley
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Guillermo del Toro
Screenplay by	Guillermo del Toro Kim Morgan
Based on	Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Produced by	J. Miles Dale Guillermo del Toro Bradley Cooper
Starring	Bradley Cooper Cate Blanchett Toni Collette Willem Dafoe Richard Jenkins Rooney Mara Ron Perlman Mary Steenburgen David Strathairn
Cinematography	Dan Laustsen
Edited by	Cam McLauchlin
Music by	Nathan Johnson
Production companies	TSG Entertainment Double Dare You Productions
Distributed by	Searchlight Pictures
Release date	December 1, 2021 (2021-12-01) (Alice Tully Hall) December 17, 2021 (2021-12-17) (United States)
Running time	150 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million[1]
Box office	$5.6 million[2][3]

Nightmare Alley is a 2021 American neo-noir psychological thriller film^[4][5] directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay by del Toro and Kim Morgan, based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham. The film features an ensemble cast including Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn. It is the second feature film adaptation of Gresham's novel, following the 1947 version. The film focuses on Stan Carlisle (Cooper), an ambitious carny who hooks up with corrupt psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Blanchett), who proves to be as dangerous as he is.

Del Toro serves as a producer on the film, alongside J. Miles Dale and Cooper. Del Toro first announced development of the project in December 2017, his first film since The Shape of Water (2017). Frequent collaborator Dan Laustsen serves as the film's cinematographer, while Nathan Johnson replaces Alexandre Desplat as the film's composer. Principal photography began in January 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, but was shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in September 2020 and concluded that December.

Nightmare Alley had its world premiere at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on December 1, 2021, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 17, 2021, by Searchlight Pictures.^[6] It received generally positive reviews with critics praising del Toro's direction, visual style, cinematography, musical score, costume design, production design, and the performances of Cooper and Blanchett, with criticism for the runtime and being seen as inferior to the 1947 film by some reviewers.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} It was named one of the top ten films of 2021 by the National Board of Review and American Film Institute. It also received eight nominations at the 27th Critics' Choice Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Del Toro.

Despite the film being critically positive, it was a box-office disappointment in its opening weekend and has grossed a total of $5.6 million worldwide (against a $60 million production budget—the highest for any Searchlight release),^[1] likely resulting in a financial loss.

Plot[]

Stanton "Stan" Carlisle burns down his Midwestern home and takes a job as a carny. When the traveling carnival's geek becomes ill, owner Clem enlists Stan to help him dispose of the man. Stan is disturbed at how any man could sink to the level of performing as a geek, living in a cage in squalor and biting off the heads of live chickens to appease the crowd. Clem explains that he seeks out alcoholics or drug addicts, often men with troubled pasts, and lures them in with promises of a temporary job and opium-laced alcohol. He uses their dependence to physically and mentally abuse them until they sink into madness and depravity, thus creating a geek for his carnival. Clem then shows Stan where he stores the moonshine he brews to control these carnies, but he warns him not to mistake it for the wood alcohol he stores nearby.

Stan works with clairvoyant act "Madame Zeena" and her alcoholic husband, Pete. Zeena and Pete use cold reading and an ingenious coded language system to make it appear that she has extraordinary mental powers, which Pete begins teaching to Stan. He and Zeena warn Stan not to ever use these skills to continue leading patrons on when it comes to the dead, what they call a "spook show"; they always inform customers afterward that the show is a deception, otherwise people get hurt. Meanwhile, Stan becomes attracted to fellow performer Molly, and approaches her with an idea for a two-person act away from the carnival.

One night, Stan, possibly accidentally, gives Pete the wrong bottle and the old man dies from consuming wood alcohol. In the aftermath, Stan swears his love to Molly and reiterates his plan to her. She accepts and they leave the carnival behind. Two years later, Stan has successfully reinvented himself as "The Great Stanton", a psychic act for the wealthy urban elite of New York, along with Molly as his assistant, using Zeena and Pete's techniques. During a performance, their act is interrupted by psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter, who attempts to expose their code system. Stan's cold reading allows him to best Ritter, keeping their act safe, but he then humiliated her in public. He is later approached by the wealthy Judge Kimball, who employed Ritter to test Stan. He is now convinced of Stan's abilities and offers to pay him handsomely to allow him and his wife to communicate with their dead son. Despite Molly's objections to the "spook show," Stan agrees.

Ritter invites Stan to her office. Knowing he is a con man, she is nevertheless intrigued by his manipulative skill. Through her recorded sessions with her clients, she has accumulated sensitive information about various members of New York's social elite. Finding themselves to be kindred spirits, she and Stan begin an affair and they conspire together to manipulate Kimball, with Ritter secretly providing private information to fuel his charade. She also begins therapy sessions with Stan, who reveals his guilt over Pete's death and his hatred of his alcoholic father, who he killed in their home before joining the carnival.

Kimball introduces Stan to the powerful Ezra Grindle, whose long lost illegitimate lover, Dory, died of a forced abortion. Despite warnings from Ritter that Grindle is dangerous, Stan begins scamming Grindle and begins drinking. Molly becomes increasingly uncomfortable, and upon learning of the affair with Ritter, leaves Stan. He begs her to stay, but she refuses, only agreeing to help him one last time. She poses as Dory for Stan's ultimate act: conjuring Dory from afar for Grindle. However, he loses control of Grindle, who grabs Molly and reveals himself to be a violent abuser of women, plagued by his guilt over Dory. Upon realizing that "Dory" is a fake, he gets angry and threatens Stan by promising to expose him. As Molly and Stan attempt to escape, Stan kills Grindle and his henchman, Anderson. They successfully flee and Molly leaves Stan for good. Stan goes to Ritter for help, but discovers she has been scamming him all along, revealing that she wanted revenge for what happened during their first encounter. She expresses disappointment in realizing that he was nothing more than a base money-driven criminal. Ritter contacts the police and threatens to use her recordings of their sessions as evidence that he is mentally disturbed should he try to implicate her. Ritter shoots Stan in the ear and he tries to strangle Ritter, but the police arrive and he flees.

Wanted, injured, and with nowhere else to go, Stan hides in a train and wanders around for years as a hobo, sunk into alcoholism. At his limit, he tries to get a job as a mentalist at another carnival. The owner turns him away, but at the last minute offers him a drink and a "temporary" job as the new geek. Finally broken, Stan agrees, saying, "Mister, I was born for it.” He begins laughing, before it gradually turns into sobbing.

Cast[]

Romina Power cameos as a viewer of Stanton’s show. Power is the daughter of original 1947 film star Tyrone Power.

Production[]

Pre-production[]

The project was announced in December 2017, when Guillermo del Toro revealed that he would be attached to write and direct a film adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel.^[12] The film marks a departure for del Toro, as it contains no "supernatural" elements, as opposed to his previous films, including Crimson Peak (2015) and The Shape of Water (2017). Del Toro considered this to be a standalone adaptation of Gresham's novel, as opposed to a remake of the 1947 film version starring Tyrone Power. He stated: "Well what it is is that book was given to me in 1992 by Ron Perlman before I saw the Tyrone Power movie, and I loved the book. My adaptation that I’ve done with [co-writer] Kim Morgan is not necessarily—the entire book is impossible, it's a saga. But there are elements that are darker in the book, and it's the first chance I have—in my short films I wanted to do noir. It was horror and noir. And now is the first chance I have to do a real underbelly of society type of movie. [There are] no supernatural elements. Just a straight, really dark story." Del Toro also revealed the film would be given an R-rating: "big R. Double R!"^[13]

In April 2019, Leonardo DiCaprio entered negotiations to star in the film.^[14] Dan Laustsen and Alexandre Desplat were announced to serve as the film's cinematographer and composer, respectively, both having previously collaborated with del Toro in The Shape of Water.^[15][16]

Casting[]

In June 2019, Bradley Cooper entered early negotiations to replace DiCaprio.^[17] Del Toro stated that he and Cooper quickly connected with each other when del Toro met Cooper in Cooper's house to discuss the role: "We started talking script and then this started mirroring our thoughts about life and the way we viewed the world. We entered strange, darker times that led to 'Nightmare Alley' for me, and [changed the] way I view the world." Del Toro also believed that Cooper's experience as a director helped strengthen their connection, stating, "A director is an actor and an actor is a director. There is no separation of the craft...that took awhile for me to get used to. I normally create and guide these little Fabergé eggs of movies, obsessively detailed. All of a sudden we were on an adventure. I will never shoot a movie the same way." Del Toro further discussed his collaborative relationship with Cooper while filming:^[18]

Curiosity and integrity are the two things, they are very bonded [...] We're like truffle hunters, smelling for that, looking for certain truth, not verisimilitude or realism but truth which is a higher form of telling a story. How we get to it is only through curiosity. When we have collaborators, the main reward is a point of view that you can literally bounce off, or get bounced off, and seek for the truth…I found it a blessing at age 56 in this movie to find the marvel of complicity and curiosity. "Is this all we can do with that scene, with that shot?" You keep seeking.

In August 2019, Cate Blanchett was in negotiations to join the film.^[19] Both Cooper and Blanchett were confirmed to star the next month, along with the addition of Rooney Mara.^[20] Toni Collette and David Strathairn were added in September, with Strathairn replacing Michael Shannon who dropped out due to "scheduling conflicts."^[21][22] Collette praised del Toro's capabilities as a director, and described the film as a "period drama" and "unlike some of his other work."^[23] Willem Dafoe was cast in October^[24] and Holt McCallany would join the next month.^[25] Ron Perlman and Richard Jenkins were both confirmed in January 2020.^[26] In February 2020, Mary Steenburgen and Romina Power, the daughter of Tyrone Power, joined the cast of the film.^[27][28] In March 2020, Paul Anderson joined the cast of the film.^[29]

Filming[]

Buffalo City Hall was used for part of filming.

Principal photography began in January 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[30][31] Production temporarily moved to Buffalo, New York in February 2020, in order for del Toro to take advantage of the city's architecture and unfamiliar setting: "I wanted to find a city that was really interesting to visit for an audience, that was not a city they were overtly familiar with." Scenes were filmed in and outside of Buffalo's Niagara Square and City Hall, and required the use of fake snow, much to the surprise of the crew, as Buffalo was widely known for its heavy snowfall during the winter season.^[32]

Principal photography was initially set to begin in September 2019, but was delayed to accommodate Cooper's schedule.^[33] "We shot the second half before the first half," Cooper revealed. "We didn't want to do it that way. Things happened to us, with sets and other actors' availability and water, the snow and all that. I was the cause. I had moved to New York and said, 'I can't do it right now. Let me get settled.'" In March 2020, Del Toro himself shut down production on the film after rising concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic: "We stopped the shoot a week before [the industry shut down] [...] That saved us. Nobody to my knowledge in the cast or the crew got coronavirus."^[34] Del Toro later reflected that "Stopping was not mandatory back then, but we both felt if we don't stop now and someone gets sick — we said, 'we gotta stop.' Nobody was expecting it. Everybody went to lunch and came back six months later."^[35] Searchlight's parent, Walt Disney Studios, officially halted production on the film soon after.^[36]

Del Toro revealed that when production was shut down, approximately 45% of the film was shot, and spent his time editing available footage during the hiatus. Del Toro also composed an 80-page safety precaution guideline to be used when production was to resume, which he was hoping to do in late 2020.^[37] Variety reported that Blanchett had completed her scenes prior to the shutdown.^[38]

Production resumed in September 2020 in Toronto.^[39] In an interview, Collette discussed some of the film's safety protocols: "[...] I’ve got to say, I think, you couldn't get any safer than a film set. They're so regimented and disciplined and demanding in terms of having to toe the line and everyone does their best to not get it. You really are in a bubble and the whole of Toronto is in masks and you're just sanitizing your hands a million times a day and trying not to be in big crowds and you just have to be mindful of that. Especially when you're working, because there's a bigger risk there. It's not just you, it's everyone else, you know?" Collette also revealed that del Toro had shot almost four hours of footage.^[40] By November 2020, principal photography was completed and re-shoots had commenced.^[41] Production officially wrapped in December 2020.^[4]

Del Toro and Cooper reflected that the unexpected shooting schedule benefited the film's structure. Del Toro remarked that “It was a blessing [...] I believe wholeheartedly life gives you what you need, not what you want. You have a window to look at everything. It was incredible. We got to see these characters, when [Stanton Carlisle] was full of himself and arrogant and certain and seeking. We were able to go back six months in between all this and were able to analyze and see not only that character but what we needed to rewrite to be able to go back to a set. If your pores are open, the movie finds you. Each movie tells you what it needs.” Cooper further stated that “This movie needed that rigor. Thank god we had that time. As simple a story is, it demanded all our concentration and focus, all that time. I don't think we realized how much it demanded of us at the beginning. That was the discovery. There is arrogance. You think you can do it, then, ‘how is this possible?'”

Cooper further reflected on his relationship with del Toro over the course of filming:^[42]

We [made] Nightmare Alley for the last two and a half years [...] It was a unique experience, going through the pandemic, taking six months off and revisiting it. We not only become lifelong friends, but it was an artistic experience.

Post-production[]

Nathan Johnson composed the score for the film after Alexandre Desplat exited due to scheduling conflicts.^[43]

Release[]

It had its world premiere at the Alice Tully Hall in New York on December 1, 2021, accompanied by simultaneous screenings at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles and the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto.^[44][45] The film was theatrically released on December 17, 2021, after having been rescheduled from its original release date of December 3, 2021.^[46]

Reception[]

Box office[]

Nightmare Alley made $225,000 from Thursday night previews and an estimated $1.19 million by Friday. Its low opening was attributed to it being primarily meant for the audiences in the older age ranges, who had avoided going out to see movies amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, low interest among the movie-going audience, and the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home around the same time.^[47][48][1] It went on to debut to $2.8 million during the weekend, finishing fifth at the box office.^[49][1] Men made up 56% of the audience during its opening, with those in the age range of 25–54 comprising 55% of ticket sales and those above 45 comprising 29%. The ethnic breakdown of the audience showed that 63% were European Americans, 11% Hispanic and Latino Americans, 9% African American, and 17% Asian or other.^[47] In its second weekend, the film earned $1.3 million.^[50]

Critical response[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 227 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While it may not hit quite as hard as the original, Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley is a modern noir thriller with a pleasantly pulpy spin."^[51] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 68 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[52] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it a 72% positive score, with 49% saying they would definitely recommend it.^[47]

Accolades[]

References[]