It’s only been four years since Guillermo del Toro’s last film, the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water. If you ask us, that’s about four years too long. But Guillermo del Toro is finally back, with his remake of the 1940s noir classic Nightmare Alley. The film stars Bradley Cooper as a con artist named Stanton Carlisle, who swindles the wealthy out of their cash at a 1930s era circus sideshow.
Now, Fox Searchlight Pictures has released a new behind-the-scenes video, “A Troupe Beyond Compare.”. And it takes us deeper into del Toro’s mysterious and exotic world. You can watch the full Nightmare Alley featurette right here:
The film has an all-star cast that includes names like Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, and Toni Collette joining Bradley Cooper. As Ron Perlman says in the featurette, the cast del Toro assembled is truly a “murderer’s row” of A-list talent. Aside from the previously mentioned names, Nightmare Alley also features Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn. The film looks as visually lux and beautifully dark as the rest of the movies in Guillermo del Toro’s filmography. Maybe even more so.
Nightmare Alley is based on a 1946 noir novel by William Lindsay Gresham. It became a film for Twentieth Century Fox only one year later, in 1947. The original film was not a huge success, but went on to build quite the cult following. Although it’s not exactly a horror film, despite its title, the creepy Depression-era circus sideshow aesthetic should appeal to fans of the genre. We know there’s a lot of Tim Burton and American Horror Story: Freak Show fans out there who love themselves a good, creepy circus theme. And Nightmare Alley delivers that in spades, and then some.
Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley hits theaters on December 17.