Searchlight Pictures released the first Nightmare Alley teaser poster, reminding fans that the movie is getting released exclusively in theaters this December. The poster was shared by co-writer and director Guillermo del Toro, who says more art pieces are yet to be released.
The poster features Bradley Cooper as the manipulative Stan Carlisle, a carny con-man who’ll get in a dangerous relationship with a psychiatrist played by Cate Blanchett. The tagline “man or beast” teases Stan’s dark nature, while the carnival poster in the background depicts Heaven and Hell. The new poster also highlights the star-studded cast of Nightmare Alley, including Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, Richard Jenkins, and Ron Perlman.
Nightmare Alley was adapted by del Toro and Kim Morgan from William Lindsay Gresham’s novel, and from the R-rating the movie got, the filmmaker won’t leave any bloody detail out of his version of the story. Nightmare Alley’s first images show that del Toro will pay homage to the noir atmosphere of the original novel, first published in 1946.
Nightmare Alley was in the middle of production when news of the pandemic started to become alarming. On March 10, 2020, del Toro and Cooper conferred and decided together it would be best to stop shooting rather than risk someone falling ill. The six months the crew took before restarting production was not wasted, however, as del Toro edited the part of the movie that was already shot and realized some rewrites were needed. As del Toro explains it, “We were able to go back six months in between all this and were able to analyze and see not only that character but what we needed to rewrite to be able to go back to a set. If your pores are open, the movie finds you.”
After being delayed two weeks, Nightmare Alley will hit theaters on December 17. Check the new poster below.
