Following his Oscar-winning romantic fantasy The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro returns with a much crueler movie in Nightmare Alley. An adaptation of the 1946 novel, Nightmare Alley follows Stan Carlisle, an ambitious carny who joins forces with a manipulative doctor and finds himself in over his head.
Audiences who loved the film are surely fans of neo-noirs and psychological thrillers unafraid to explore human nature's ugly side. Luckily for them, there are lots of other movies that capture the same vibe, offering more of the lush production values and rich emotional themes that Nightmare Alley provides.
Carny (1980)
Available On Apple TV+ And Amazon Prime Video
Carny came out at a time when Gary Busey was still a star and Jodie Foster an ingenue. The movie follows a straightforward plot about a waitress who joins a traveling carnival, finding a home among the troupe's colorful characters.
Despite initial appearances, Carny finds the time to explore themes of identity and sexual fluidity, set against a hectic and colorful background featuring the everyday cons of circus life. Carny explores the lighter side of a traveling carnival, showcasing the sense of family that comes with it.
The Black Dahlia (2006)
Stream On Amazon Prime Video
Brian De Palma's neo-noir crime thriller The Black Dahlia aims to answer the decades-long question of who killed its title character. Unfortunately, despite Mia Kirshner's exceptional performance as the doomed Elizabeth Short, the film adds little to the story and instead settles for sensationalizing it.
Indeed, The Black Dahlia is all style and hardly any substance. However, its style is nothing short of impressive, offering exquisite cinematography and luscious production design that successfully bring the 1940s to life. Fans of Nightmare Alley's top-tier visuals will find The Black Dahlia enjoyable.
Freaks (1932)
Available On Apple TV+ And Amazon Prime Video
The phrase "We accept you, one of us, gooble gobble" is now part of pop culture, but the film where it originated remains somewhat obscure. Tod Browning's groundbreaking horror film Freaks follows a trapeze girl who joins a traveling carnival to seduce and kill a dark performer to secure his inheritance.
It could be easy to classify Freaks as a spectacle of horror, an exercise in the grotesque. Indeed, Freaks is by far one of the most transgressive projects of the pre-Code era. Still, beyond the superficial horror lies a surprisingly tender story, a celebration of the titular characters that dares the audience to look at them beyond their basic "freakiness." By going against the accepted standards of physical beauty and honoring otherness, Freaks became one of the most progressive films of the 1930s.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Stream On HBO Max
Film noir had its undeniable golden age during the 1930s and 40s. The genre consolidated thanks to films like The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Lana Turner and John Garfield. It follows a drifter who begins an affair with the wife of a diner owner, which quickly turns into a murderous plot.
All the classic elements of film noir are present in Postman. The femme fatale, murderous plot, and voiceover narration all work together to create a prime example of noir excellency. Like Nightmare Alley and other films of the genre, Postman rejects conventionality, creating an intentionally chaotic atmosphere that encourages characters and viewers to stray from the traditional path of morality.
Nocturnal Animals (2017)
Stream On Netflix
Tom Ford's sophomore directorial effort, Nocturnal Animals, is beautiful to look at and uncomfortable to sit through. It stars Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal and follows an art gallery owner as she reads her first husband's novel, a dark and violent tale of revenge that somewhat mirrors their former relationship.
Elevated by the strength of its cast, Nocturnal Animals cements Ford as a narrative powerhouse with a unique visual style. Throwing away convention and taste results in a harrowing, bizarre and ultraviolent neo-noir film that will leave fans thinking, and feeling, long after the credits roll.
The Blue Angel (1930)
Stream On Tubi
Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel follows a man's relentless struggle and eventual degradation due to his obsession with a beautiful woman, Lola Lola. On the surface, the movie might seem like a typical story of a man destroyed by a femme fatale. However, like Nightmare Alley, the film refuses to assign blame, offering the viewer enough tools to understand and sympathize with its characters without any condemnation.
Featuring an unforgettable and unexpectedly funny turn by the legendary Marlene Deitrich, The Blue Angel is a thoughtful insight into human insecurities, a study on the downfall of a man consumed by his own devices.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Available On Amazon Prime Video
Mulholland Drive might be David Lynch's masterpiece, a film open to the audience's interpretation that continues to puzzle fans to this day. Framing its story as a tale of Hollywood dreams and nightmares, the movie explores themes of identity, love, sexual liberation, reality, and ambition, imbued with Lynch's trademark surrealist tone.
The result is a story that challenges the audience to look between the lines. It asks a cascade of questions that it never bothers to answer, sometimes seeming like it doesn't even have the responses. Like Nightmare Alley, Mulholland Drive exists in a decidedly amoral space, where boundaries become blurred by a shared sense of delusion.
Double Indemnity (1944)
Available On Amazon Prime Video
Double Indemnity is arguably the best noir film of Classic Hollywood. Starring a never-better Barbara Stanwyck, alongside Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson, the movie follows an insurance salesman who becomes involved with a married woman plotting her husband's murder to live off the insurance.
The femme fatale and her liaison with another schemer are crucial plot points in any film noir. Double Indemnity has the most iconic representation of both elements in Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson and her affair with MacMurray's Walter Neff. Every movie femme fatale that came after, from Jessica Rabbit to Blanchett's Lilith Ritter in Nightmare Alley, is indebted to Stanwyck's seminal turn, which remains the ultimate version of the trope.
Shutter Island (2010)
Stream On Netflix
Reality gets twisted in Martin Scorsese's neo-noir thriller Shutter Island. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a Deputy US Marshall who, in 1954, travels to the psychiatric facility of Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of one of its patients.
Shutter Island explores themes of mental illness, regret, and the possibility of change, presented as a straightforward psychological thriller. Like Nightmare Alley, the movie pays homage to many film noirs that came before, including the work of Alfred Hitchcock.
Nightcrawler (2014)
Stream On Hulu
At its core, Nightmare Alley is a story about greed and the depths a person can sink into when cornered. No movie explores these sentiments better than Dan Gilroy's unforgiving Nightcrawler. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler follows Lou Bloom, an ambitious stringer who records violent crimes around Los Angeles and sells the footage to sensationalist news stations.
Nightcrawler is a complex psychological thriller featuring a tour-de-force by Gyllenhaal that was somehow not nominated for an Oscar. The movie is a macabre exploration into society's needs for shocks and thrills, offering a decidedly bleak but thought-provoking insight into the mind of a charming sociopath.