Peeling back the layers of Guillermo del Toro’s tour-de-force Nightmare Alley reveals countless references, influences, and utter darkness.
From the cinematography to the costumes to the performances, Nightmare Alley descends in unison to its dark conclusion, skillfully marking every step on the staircase to hell with unforgettable cinematic imprints.
If you love film and filmmaking, you’ll love this one. And you’ll recoil in horror.
For the creative, it can also be a blueprint for crafting unique and compelling horror with an actual purpose. While filmic genre seems familiar and is often an empty postmodern exercise, Guillermo del Toro and his team transcend nostalgia and infuse the conventions of horror-noir using clever filmmaking techniques that point us to actual implications about ourselves as creatives, and as audiences.
This movie has a message, for those willing to listen, about whether or not we can preserve our humanity. But before we go there, context is everything—so let’s start there.
Author: George Edelman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
