Nightmare Alley Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Nightmare Alley Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 18, 2022

For those who may be fond of calling any nerd like friends a "geek", one particular use of that term may come as something of a surprise. While it's actually an "approved" definition, the use of "geek" to describe a certain kind of carnival sideshow performer, typically a down on his luck alcoholic or drug addict consigned to an act consisting of biting the heads off of live chickens, has perhaps understandably largely fallen by the wayside, with the word now often only being a somewhat tamer euphemism for someone who is simply socially awkward. That now largely forgotten, more specific (and disturbing) use of geek is central to Nightmare Alley, an interesting if weirdly high-falutin' and literary dissection of some decidedly unseemly characters that offers sumptuous (if occasionally seedy) production design and some compelling performances, but which never seems to really go for any real emotional gusto, despite acres of subtext involving wasted lives and lost chances. Nightmare Alley began life as a 1946 novel by William Lindsey Graham, which perhaps incredibly (considering its somewhat smarmy content) became a "prestige picture" for Tyrone Power at 20th Century Fox the following year. The 1947 Nightmare Alley made at least one subtle if significant change to the dark and tragic downward spiral experienced by focal character Stanton Carlisle (Power in the 1947 version, Bradley Cooper in this outing), one which offered perhaps a glimmer of hope, potentially as a buffer some Fox executive deemed necessary in order to provide a post-World War II audience with something more traditionally "entertaining". Guillermo del Toro didn't have to work under the same strictures, and this Nightmare Alley is considerably depressing at times, though it has a curious presentational distance that is in fact quite a bit like the slightly dissociative quality that a glossy Hollywood production from the 1940s might have offered.

An opening vignette sees Stan leaving a devastating house fire, in a scene that is returned to interstitially with more and more information as the story progresses, but which initially offers a kind of del Toro-esque reimagining of a famous Andrew Wyeth painting (see screenshot 5). Stan ends up at a traveling carnival, where he's rather quickly put to work and ultimately taken in by carnival owner Clem Hoatley (Willem Dafoe). Stan has already witnessed the carnival's horrifying "geek show", where a dissheveled man kept in a cage is allowed to feed off the blood of a chicken he kills by biting into its neck. Of course, the carnival charges an extra quarter a pop for anyone wanting to witness this spectacle, and Clem makes sure that the dollar Stan has been promised to aid in moving the carnival has 25 cents deducted from it since Stan attended the "performance".

In just one of several kind of unexplained elements, the carnival ends up next to a house where a mentalist named Zeena (Toni Collette) and her alcoholic husband Pete (David Straithern) live. Zeena and Pete seem to have a pre-existing relationship with Clem and his carnival, though that is frankly never really explained, nor is the fact that the carnival ends up camping next to Zeena and Pete's home for the duration of what amounts to the first act or so of the story. One way or the other, Stan catches Zeena's eye and there is a clear indication the two embark on some kind of relationship, though Stan seems at least as interested in a "code" book Pete has developed for his former career as a "mind reader", an act he evidently enjoyed with Zeena before his drinking problem ended it.

Suffice it to say that Stan is able to matriculate into carnival life with seeming ease, befriending another woman named Molly (Rooney Mara), who works as a so-called "electric girl" supposedly able to handle a sizable current. Stan's efforts at mastering Pete's former stock in trade ultimately bear fruit, and without detailing a rather labyrinthine series of events, the story eventually moves on to Stan and Molly as more upper scale celebrities in the "big city", where Stan has found considerable success with a nightclub act which combines mind reading with a certain kind of spiritualism. In the audience one night is an uppity lady later revealed to be psychiatrist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), and the second half of the film deals with a kind of cat and mouse game between these two over active intellects and/or schemers.

There's an undeniably tawdry aspect to Nightmare Alley, despite the luxe trappings that Stan experiences, at least for a while. The film is a riot of inventive aesthetics, depicting both the downtrodden lives of the carnival workers as well as the much better appointed trappings of people like Lilith and her patients, but despite probably valiant attempts on the part of Cooper and Mara in particular, there's an undeniably cold and unfeeling ambience suffusing much of the film. That seems particularly unexpected given the almost classically tragic fatalism of Stan's dissolution.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was seemingly even less enthused about Nightmare Alley than I. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Nightmare Alley Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nightmare Alley is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Studios and Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Captured with a variety of Arri Alexa models and finished at 4K (both data points courtesy of the IMDb), this is a striking presentation on Blu- ray, with typically excellent detail levels and a rather interesting, assumedly intentionally dowdy at times, looking palette. Despite a surplus of at times dimly lit scenes, fine detail levels are generally excellent throughout the presentation, sometimes horrifyingly so, as in the early vignette documenting the "work" of a circus geek. There's an emphasis on browns throughout the film, something that can make occasional pops of bright color look even more vivid simply due to the surrounding blandness of things. The 1080 version looked slightly more yellow to my eyes at times than the simultaneously released 4K UHD version. The gamut of sets and costumes offer at times palpable looking textures which more often than not are able to penetrate sometimes shrouded lighting regimens.

Nightmare Alley Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nightmare Alley features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. An occasionally seemingly hallucinatory sound design is really well presented here, with clear engagement of the side and rear channels for all sorts of effects, beginning with the fire scene, but then moving on to crowd noises at the carnival. Later vignettes like the first scene offering Molly and "current events" (sorry, couldn't resist, and, yes, that's another electricity joke) also offer some fun panning effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

Nightmare Alley Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Del Toro's Neo Noir (HD; 11:14) addresses some of the content and stylistic approaches of the film.


• Beneath the Tarp (HD; 8:29) looks at the film's Academy Award nominated production design.


• What Exists in the Fringe (HD; 5:23) does similar service for the film's costume designs.

Nightmare Alley Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Del Toro uses a recurring image of a supposedly deformed fetus in a bottle that Clem keeps as part of his carnival that seems shoehorned into this story in some fitful attempt to evoke images from The Devil's Backbone or Pan's Labyrinth, but that very use may only highlight what a kind of odd choice this story was for a director who is often more concerned with "actual" supernatural elements rather than "pretend" ones, and who often features seemingly helpless children rather than overtly helpless adults. The 1947 Nightmare Alley was, as mentioned above, a rather strange "prestige picture" in its day, and in a way, this 2021 version might be perceived to be similar, offering a weirdly glossy take on some considerably gritty characters. There's a detached quality here which may deprive the film from ever hitting an emotional bullseye, but performances are compelling and the production design absolutely top notch. Technical merits are solid, and with caveats noted, Nightmare Alley comes Recommended.