The teaser trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s intriguing horror-psychological thriller film is here, and it looks amazingly terrifying.
A follow-up to his Oscar-winning film, The Shape of Water – Nightmare Alley features a top-tier cast in a noir setting. Even if you dislike the director’s films (which I frankly don’t get why one would), you have to admit his style is pretty interesting.
Nightmare Alley is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, which previously has been adapted by Edmund Goulding in 1947.
The del Toro version follows an ambitious carny (Bradley Cooper) with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words who hooks up with a female psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than he is.
The teaser has a few scenes, including one in the snow, that reminded me of The Shining (for a split second, I was sure a set of twins were going to pop up behind Cooper in the alley).
The clip focuses on the phrase, “Is he a man or beast?” implying that there is something sinister about Cooper’s character, something darker. However, this film will not have any supernatural elements.
In an interview with Collider, del Toro said,
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 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
Even without involving any supernatural elements, the film will be gruesome for sure. It’s not going to be a PG-13 flick… or in del Toro’s words, it will be a “Double R.”
The cast includes Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, David Strathairn, Holt McCallany, Tim Blake Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, David Strathairn, and Clifton Collins Jr.
The movie is written by del Toro and Kim Morgan and distributed by Searchlight Pictures.
Nightmare Alley is set to release in theaters on December 17.
About Nightmare Alley
Nightmare Alley is an upcoming American psychological thriller film directed by Guillermo del Toro with a screenplay by del Toro and Kim Morgan, based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham.
The cast includes Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, and David Strathairn.
It follows Stan Carlisle, an ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words, who hooks up with Dr. Lilith Ritter, a psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.
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