Guillermo del Toro Crafts One of the Decade’s Best Thrillers with “Tonight Among Friends”!

Released in 2022, “Nightmare Alley” is a thriller directed by Guillermo del Toro, coming four years after his Oscar-winning success with “The Shape of Water.” Featuring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, and Toni Collette, the film introduces us to the charismatic Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper).

During a rough patch, Carlisle joins a traveling carnival and quickly wins over a fortune teller, Zeena (Toni Collette), and her husband Pete, a former mentalism star. Learning from them, he sees an opportunity to achieve success and decides to use his newfound skills to swindle the elite of 1940s New York society.

With the virtuous and loyal Molly (Rooney Mara) by his side, Stanton begins to devise a plan to con a man who is as powerful as he is dangerous. He will receive assistance from a mysterious psychiatrist who might just turn out to be his most formidable opponent…

A Riveting Tale

A masterfully conducted thriller, “Nightmare Alley” draws us into a twisted and winding plot that grips us and keeps us captivated until the end. Blending film noir and horror narrative, the film is elevated by the performances of its lead actors, with Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett at the forefront.

Cooper finds one of his best roles here. In fact, he even went as far as performing fully nude for a necessary scene in the film—a first for the actor who had never done a full frontal on screen before. “I remember reading the script and thinking it was a rogue in a bathtub, and that it was part of the story. It had to be done. There was nothing gratuitous about it. It was for the story.” On set, the actor had to remain naked for 6 hours in front of the crew and Toni Collette, who was filming her first day.

The Origin of the Project

It’s worth noting that “Nightmare Alley” is a new adaptation of the novel “The Charlatan” by William Lindsay Gresham, first published in 1946. This book had previously been adapted into a film by Edmund Goulding in 1947. It was Ron Perlman, with whom he had just filmed “Cronos” in 1993, who suggested the novel “The Charlatan” to Guillermo del Toro.

Perlman had already expressed his desire to play Stanton Carlisle, the central character of “Nightmare Alley.” At the time, the director embarked on a real treasure hunt to find a VHS copy of the 1947 film, before diving into the original novel. However, when he tried to acquire the rights, legal complications arose, forcing him to put the project on hold.

It wasn’t until the late 2020s that Kim Morgan, screenwriter and the filmmaker’s partner, revived the idea. “This time, we went directly to Fox, since they own the 1947 film. They were very open to our vision and gave us free rein to write the script,” the director shared in L’Écran Fantastique in January 2022.

A long-held dream finally realized, thanks to an enduring passion… and more favorable timing. “Nightmare Alley” is available on Prime Disney+ platforms.

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