Nightmare Alley (2021) Movie Review

Guillermo del Toro consistently churns out weird movies that are somehow also incredibly captivating. You might know his work from Pan’s Labyrinth or his more recent movies like Crimson Peak or The Shape of Water. Nightmare Alley continues del Toro’s theme of working with the strange and eerie.

Nightmare Alley is a noir set in the 1940’s amidst a carnival. Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is a wandering soul who links up with a carnival. He begins learning from his new carny friends. There’s Zeena the Seer (Toni Collette) who does an act with Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins) where they trick the audience into believing that Zeena can read minds and speak to the dead. Clem Hoatley (Willem Dafoe) is an intense man who collects fetuses in jars and who runs a show with a ‘geek’ who rips off chickens’ heads with his teeth. There’s also Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara) who gets electrified at every show to the delight of audiences.

Carlisle infiltrates this group and begins learning all of their secrets to putting on a successful show. He is particularly drawn to Zeena and Ezra and the idea of mind reading and connecting to spirits. Zeena warns Carlisle about the dangers of this line of work and cautions him against believing that his “powers” are real. Of course Carlisle doesn’t listen and leaves the carny world to break out onto his own. His show becomes extremely popular and he and Molly build a nice life together. That is until they run into Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) who is even more cunning than Carlisle. They get into some trouble with big wigs from the town and the plot thickens with some twists and turns that are undoubtedly interesting but that I won’t spoil here.

Nightmare Alley dares to look at the uglier sides of life. In this movie, no one is entirely innocent and all of the characters are riddled with their own problems. It’s a sad existence that del Toro showcases, with none of the characters able to fully outrun their problems, Carlisle being the extreme version here. The pacing is the problem with Nightmare Alley as it is incredibly slow for the first half until Cate Blanchett shows up. However, once Dr. Ritter is introduced, the action and intensity pick up and it finishes much better than it started.

In typical del Toro fashion, Nightmare Alley is full of oddities and showcases humanity at its best and at its worst. The final scene will leave you haunted and is arguably the best scene of the entire film with phenomenal acting from Cooper. It comes full circle which is both predictable and completely heart wrenching. Nightmare Alley is certainly not Guillermo del Toro’s best movie, but it is an interesting exploration of how people deal with their problems and if it’s possible to change your fate. 

You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like Guillermo del Toro’s style
2. You like noirs
3. You enjoy the carny lifestyle