Movie Title: Nightmare Alley

Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Writers: Guillermo del Toro, Kim Morgan, William Lindsay Gresham

Producers: Bradley Cooper, J. Miles Dale, Guillermo del Toro

Composer: Nathan Johnson

Cinematographer: Dan Laustsen

Editor: Cam McLauchlin

Casting Director: Robin D. Cook

Production Designer: Tamara Deverell

Release Date: Jan 27, 2022

Budget: $60 million

MPAA: R

Running Time: 2 hr 30 min

Genres: Crime|Drama|Thriller

About Movie: Nightmare Alley (2021)

Nightmare Alley is a 2021 American neo-noir psychological thriller film 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, being the second feature film adaptation of Gresham's novel, following the 1947 version. A co-production between Searchlight Pictures, TSG Entertainment, and Double Dare You Productions, the film stars Bradley Cooper as a charming and ambitious carnival worker with a mysterious past who takes big risks to boost his career. Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn also star.

Nightmare Alley premiered 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. Additionally, a black-and-white version titled Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light was released in select cities starting on January 14, 2022. The film received generally positive reviews from critics but flopped at the box office, grossing a total of $36 million worldwide against a $60 million production budget. It received four nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Overview

Stan burns down his home and takes a job as a carny with a travelling carnival. Stan is disturbed at how any man could sink to the level of performing as a geek. Clem explains that he seeks out alcoholic or drug-addicted men with troubled pasts, and lures them in with promises of a "temporary" job and opium-laced alcohol. He then uses their dependence until they sink into madness and depravity, thus creating a new geek. Stan also works with clairvoyant act "Madame Zeena" and her alcoholic husband, Pete. He and Zeena warn Stan not to ever use these skills 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.

Cast

Bradley Cooper as Stanton "Stan" Carlisle

Cate Blanchett as Lilith Ritter

Toni Collette as Zeena Krumbein

Willem Dafoe as Clement "Clem" Hoatley

Richard Jenkins as Ezra Grindle

Rooney Mara as Mary Margaret "Molly" Cahill

Ron Perlman as Bruno

Mary Steenburgen as Felicia Kimball

David Strathairn as Peter "Pete" Krumbein

Mark Povinelli as Major Mosquito

Peter MacNeill as Judge Charles Kimball

Holt McCallany as Anderson

Paul Anderson as Geek #1

Lara Jean Chorostecki as Louise Hoatley

Jim Beaver as Sheriff Jedediah Judd

Clifton Collins Jr. as Funhouse Jack

Tim Blake Nelson as Carny Boss

David Hewlett as Dr. Elrood

Dian Bachar as Fee Fee the Birdgirl

Stephen McHattie as Hobo #1

Romina Power, daughter of actor Tyrone Power, who played Stanton in the 1947 film, cameos as a viewer of Stanton's show.

Plot Summary

In 1939, Stanton Carlisle burns down a house after putting a dead body beneath the floorboards. He heads out of town on a bus and after he arrives in an unknown town, takes a job as a carny. The first night at the carnival Stan witnesses a man in a pit being forced to eat a live chicken and suck its blood out for onlookers' entertainment. Stan learns that this man's role at the carnival is not voluntary and that he is called "The Geek". Stan's strong work ethic, intelligence, and charm quickly put him in the good graces of the carnival troupe, including the owner, Clem. When the carnival's geek becomes ill, Clem enlists Stan to help him dispose of the man. Stunned by the man's degradation, Stan asks how Clem ever convinces anyone to be a geek. Clem explains that he seeks out alcoholics, who are often men with troubled pasts, luring them in with promises of a temporary job as a fake geek while emphasizing that it is "just temporary," then regularly gives them opium-laced alcohol. At first he allows the geek to fake the act, but eventually "fires" them, claiming that a faked act cannot draw a real crowd. Unable to confront withdrawal and sobriety, the geek starts actually performing the act.

Stan works with the clairvoyant act "Madame Zeena" and her alcoholic husband, Pete. Zeena and Pete use cold reading and coded language which Pete has written down in a book that he keeps on him at all times. After polite prodding from Stan, Pete begins teaching some of his and Zeena's tricks to Stan. He and Zeena warn Stan never to use these skills to continue leading patrons on when it comes to contacting the dead. 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 gives Pete the wrong bottle, and the old man dies from consuming wood alcohol. Stan saves the carnival from being shut down by the police when he convinces an officer, using cold reading skills, that the officer's deceased mother is asking him to show mercy. Buoyed by newfound confidence, Stan and Molly leave the carnival.

Two years later, Stan has successfully reinvented himself as a psychic act for the wealthy elite of Buffalo, with Molly as his assistant, using Zeena and Pete's coded language techniques. During a performance, their act is interrupted by psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter, who attempts to expose the rigged act, but Stan bests Ritter with his legitimate cold reading skills, publicly humiliating her by making accurate deductions about her troubled childhood and correctly guessing she had a pistol in her purse, telling her "it makes you feel powerful. Well, madam, you are not powerful."

Stan is later approached by the wealthy Judge Kimball, who employed Ritter to test Stan. Now convinced of Stan's abilities, he offers to pay him to allow him and his wife to communicate with their dead son. Despite Molly's objections, Stan agrees. Ritter invites Stan to her office. Knowing he is a con man, she is intrigued by his skill. Through recorded sessions with her clients, she has accumulated information about members of Buffalo's social elite. Using information provided by Ritter, Stan's reading for Judge Kimball goes well and the couple expresses gratitude. Stan is paid handsomely and takes the money back to Ritter to split it 50/50. Ritter states that she does not want the money, but instead she wants Stan to sit for a session. Stan reluctantly agrees while also stating that he'd like to keep the money he's earned at her office so that Molly does not find out he has been scamming people.

Ritter and Stan begin an affair, and she begins therapy sessions with Stan, who reveals his guilt over Pete's death and his hatred of his alcoholic father, whom he killed in their home before joining the carnival. When offered a tumbler of whiskey by Ritter, Stan states he "Never touches the stuff", to which Ritter replies, "Never? We'll have to work on that."

Kimball introduces Stan to Ezra Grindle, whose lover, Dorrie, died of a forced abortion. Despite warnings from Ritter that Grindle is dangerous, Stan begins to scam Grindle and starts to drink after being tricked by Ritter to kiss her after she had put whiskey on her lips. Ritter feeds Stan information about Grindle, but Grindle soon tires of Stan merely "contacting" Dorrie, and demands that Stan conjure her spirit and make her visibly appear. Stan agrees, planning to have Molly pose as Dorrie's spirit from afar. Molly becomes uncomfortable, and learning of the affair with Ritter, leaves Stan. He begs her to stay, but she refuses, only agreeing to help him one last time. However, Stan loses control of Grindle, who reveals himself to be a violent abuser of women due to his guilt for Dorrie, then embracing Molly before she can exit. Grindle's henchman, Anderson, hears a radio broadcast announcing that Judge Kimball and his wife have been found dead in a murder-suicide - caused by Stan assuring them that their deceased son promised they would be reunited in death.

Realizing "Dorrie" is a fake, Grindle becomes enraged and promises to destroy Stan, then strikes Molly. Stan brutally beats him to death while Molly watches in horror, and murders Anderson during their escape by running him over with his car. Stan trashes the car to make it appear it was stolen, as Molly finally abandons him. Stan goes to Ritter to claim his share of the scam money, but discovers she had been stealing it. Ritter threatens to use her recordings of their sessions as evidence that he is mentally disturbed should he try to implicate her. She admits she does not truly need the money, but despises his ego and hubris. Ritter shoots Stan in the ear, saying "am I powerful enough for you now, Stan?" echoing the words he used to humiliate her during their first confrontation. Ritter alerts security claiming Stan broke into her office. Stan tries to strangle her with the telephone cord, but security officers arrive, and he flees.

Stan escapes in a boxcar loaded with chickens, and becomes a homeless alcoholic. In a flashback, Stan is sitting by his invalid father's bed, in the house from the beginning of the film. He tells his father he hates him, then opens the window to the winter air and takes his father's covers. Stan sits and waits for his father to die from the cold. In the present day, he tries to get a job as a mentalist at a carnival. Disgusted by Stan's appearance and odor, the carnival owner instead offers him a drink and a job as a fake geek, assuring him it is "only temporary." Realizing his fate, Stan laughs and sobs as he answers, "Mister, I was born for it."