Nightmare Alley

Though "Nightmare Alley" is too long and meandering to totally work as a cohesive film, theres no doubt it has images that will stick with you none more so than its haunting final shot.

Nightmare Alley feels gorgeously and intricately alive on the screen. Its shadows are luxuriant and deep, often threatening to swallow the characters whole, and the actors play their parts with an aplomb that rivals del Toro’s own.

The genuine, pleasant surprise for me was discovering truly what an unabashed, all-out noir it was. Blanchett's character, the big scheme, the hubris and pushing the scheme too far, the fatalism.

The one to see is the one from 1947.

It's hard to think of a noir story that would be better suited to del Toro as a director -- the arch-fabulist who fears men more than he does monsters.

From its bruised colour palette to its spiralling descent into madness and degradation, this is deliciously damnable fare, looking back through the prism of Del Toro's adventurous oeuvre to the existential angst of his vampiric feature debut, Cronos.

In addition to its thrilling plot and studded cast, Nightmare Alley is also psychologically literate enough to make a carnival out of the human soul.

Nightmare Alley is something to behold... but it's the storytelling that lacks conviction.

Del Toro’s strongest thematically made film. With a twisted atmosphere that had me in awe at every turn. Incredibly made, slow first chapter but once it got going I was all in.

Few directors can match Guillermo del Toro‘s virtuosity. There’s a Kafkaesque yet sensual opulence to his dark sensibilities.