Film Preview: Nightmare Alley (2021)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(September 19, 2021) Original
(November 28, 2021) New Trailer (#2) — New Posters (#1-#11)
(December 12, 2021) New Poster (#12)

Release Date:

December 17, 2021

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “An ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.”

Poster Rating: B+ / C / C+ (9) / C+

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Review: (#1) A nice use of color with this design. The background doesn’t have as many interesting elements as it could, but the feel of neo-noir comes through well. (#2) Like the upcoming character posters, there’s not a lot of interest here and while this appears to be a darker draft of designs, it just doesn’t feel fitting. (#3-#11) These character posters have posters in the background, which is a meta kind of concept, but they don’t have nearly as much appeal as a whole.

(#12) It’s unclear the purpose of the fuzzy black-and-white image. In a way, it almost distorts the figure’s image to be that of a sideshow “freak” as the carnival in the film might have had, but it’s not certain if that was the intention or not. It’s otherwise disinteresting.

Trailer Rating: A- / B+

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Review: (#1) Lots of eye-popping visuals and hints at a fascinating story under the surface make this trailer engaging and appealing to a potential audience.

(#2) Not as chillingly interesting as the prior design, this trailer makes the neo-noir elements pop a little more and doesn’t erode the good will of the first teaser.

Oscar Prospects:

Guillermo del Toro has another period drama with fantasy elements that could be in play for the Oscars. Whether it can come close to The Shape of Water in terms of Oscar consideration remains to be seen.