Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara reunite in ‘Nightmare Alley’

Watch the teaser trailer for the new movie from the stars of ‘Carol.’

The pandemic has done little to dim the vision of prolific Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, who won awards for best picture and best director for 2018’s The Shape of Water. While his psychological thriller Nightmare Alley was delayed, it is now ready for release with a mega-watt cast and moody, nocturnal, noirish setting.

The film follows Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), an ambitious carnival performer with a talent for psychologically and emotionally manipulating people. When he meets Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), a psychiatrist who is even into mind games more than he is, all hell breaks loose.

Also in the cast are Toni Collette as Zeena Krumbein, Willem Dafoe as Clem Hoately, Richard Jenkins as Ezra Grindle, Ron Perlman as Bruno, and of course Rooney Mara as Molly Cahill. This is Mara and Blanchett’s first project together since the Oscar-nominated lesbian drama, Carol.

Nightmare Alley is a remake of a 1947 American film noir of the same name starring bisexual heartthrob Tyrone Power and featuring Joan Blondell.

Nightmare Alley plays in theaters on December. 17.