Two years ago, the black & white version of Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-nominated Nightmare Alley debuted on Hulu after its theatrical run. Today, the filmmaker revealed on Bluesky that not only is he hard at work on a Nightmare Alley remaster of this version, but it’ll be an extended cut.
“I am remastering the B&W Nightmare Alley w an extended cut. Stay tuned,” Del Toro shared on the social media app.
“Although we shot Nightmare Alley in color, we lit it as if it were black and white,” said del Toro previously of his dubbed Nightmare Alley: A Vision in Darkness & Light. “You can see exactly the same level of design, and we wanted to give viewers this special vantage as a take of the classic noir genre that the film is part of.”
Director of Photography Dan Laustsen had explained, “When we designed and shot, we were always thinking color and black and white,” he said. “The classic lighting I have used is an homage to all the incredible masters of cinematography who have inspired me.”
Bradley Cooper stars as an ambitious young carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words in this adaptation of the novel by William Lindsay Gresham. He hooks up with a female psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett), who is even more dangerous than he is. The insane cast also includes Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn.
In my review for BD, I wrote, “Nightmare Alley offers psychological thrills in a profoundly haunting and intricately woven rumination on society’s dark underbelly, on the pursuit of success and damnation that might lurk at the end.” Meagan goes on to write, “It’s not the filmmaker’s strongest effort, yet it’s still a soaring spectacle that casts a spell.”
Considering the film’s Christmas setting, this news feels like the perfect holiday treat. Like del Toro says, stay tuned for more news on this new remaster.
