The first teaser for Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley remake is out and causing a huge stir. The trailer of the film, according to an AVClub report, sees Bradley Cooper bounce back and forth between the high life and the gutter, all accompanied by Willem Dafoe, in full carnival barker mode.
According to the report, it’s been four years since Guillermo Del Toro’s last directorial feature, the Oscar-winning The Shape Of Water, which means it’s been four years since we’ve gotten to bask in the director’s love of moody lighting, bombastic recitations, and some of the most striking faces working in the modern film industry.
Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel (adapted with Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell by director Edmund Goulding just a year later), Nightmare Alley tells the story of Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle, a con-man with good taste in marks and bad taste in women. (At least, in the sense of running into the hands of of Cate Blanchett as Dr. Lilith Ritter, an even more manipulative presence than the veteran carny.)
The teaser for Del Toro’s version of this story, AVClub adds, goes light on plot but heavy on feeling, whether that’s from the unnerving power of Blanchett’s watchful eyes, Rooney Mara jolting in an electric chair, or the sight of Cooper resigning himself to the realities of a burning building. Meanwhile, we get glimpses of the rest of the Del Toro ensemble new and old, including Richard Jenkins, Toni Collette, David Straitharn, and, of course, Ron Perlman.
