Nightmare Alley is a 2021 neo-noir psychological thriller film co-written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, and based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham.

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.

Frequent collaborator Dan Laustsen was the cinematographer, and Nathan Johnson replaced Alexandre Desplat as its composer.

A black-and-white version subtitled Vision in Darkness and Light was released in select cities starting on January 14, 2022.

That evening, he walks into a traveling carnival and watches a geek show in which a deranged man eats a live chicken.

Madame Zeena and Pete teach Stan how to use the coded language and cold reading tricks in their act, while warning him against pretending to speak to the dead.

Stan informs Ritter that Kimball has offered to introduce him to Ezra Grindle, a very wealthy industrialist and her former patient.

After successfully convincing Grindle that he is a true medium, Stan starts an affair with Ritter and begins drinking.

On the day Stan plans to materialize Dorrie, Kimball's wife murders her husband and commits suicide to be reunited with their son.

[6] 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.

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.

"[8] 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 (2017).

[15][16] Collette praised del Toro's capabilities as a director, and described the film as a "period drama" and "unlike some of his other work.

[27] Del Toro revealed that when production was shut down, approximately 45% of the film was shot, and he spent his time editing available footage during the hiatus.

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.

[31] 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.

Cooper further reflected on his relationship with del Toro over the course of filming:[12] 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.Due to scheduling conflicts, Desplat exited the film, resulting in Nathan Johnson being brought in as replacement.

[32] 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.

[35] On December 17, 2021, the day of the film's release, Searchlight Pictures announced that a black-and-white version of the film, titled Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light, would be released the following month, on January 14, 2022, in select theaters in Los Angeles only, for up to 6 days.

The website's 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.

"[48] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100 based on 55 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[42] Mark Kermode of The Observer gave the film 5 out of 5, writing: "From its bruised colour palette to its spiralling descent into madness and degradation, this is deliciously damnable fare, looking back through the prism of Del Toro's adventurous oeuvre to the existential angst of his vampiric feature debut, Cronos.

"[50] Linda Marric of The Jewish Chronicle also gave 5 out of 5, writing: "Del Toro employs a mixture of stylish old Hollywood sensibilities with B movie tropes to bring us an engaging and gorgeously acted psychological thriller.

"[51] Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent also gave the film 5 out of 5, writing: "Del Toro can do worldbuilding in his sleep, but you might also find Cooper's brittle performance, filled with such elemental sadness, hard to shake off.

"[52] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 4 out of 5, praising it as "a spectacular noir melodrama boasting gruesomely enjoyable performances and freaky twists.

"[53] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph was more critical, giving the film 2 out of 5 stars and describing it as "an act of origami-level homage: it's all folded together in impressively fiddly ways, but the result is an angular, inert approximation, lacking in the original's breath or heat.

"[54] Kevin Maher of The Times also gave the 2 out of 5 stars, praising its set design, but added: "there's little else in this drastically overstretched narrative (150 minutes!)