A black-and-white version of Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley,” subtitled Vision in Darkness and Light, was released in select cities on January 14, 2022. It now sounds like del Toro isn’t done tinkering with his 150-minute film.
Del Toro has announced that he’s working on a remastered B&W “Nightmare Alley” extended cut. That’s right, he’s adding footage to his already overlong film. Apparently, we should expect some news about a release in “the next few weeks.”
Furthermore, when one person mentioned how underrated “Nightmare Alley” is, Del Toro claimed the film’s commercial failure was because it “was released the week COVID Omicron surged — eliminating all adult box office, including us and other big releases.”
I have to admit to having not seen the B&W version of ‘Nightmare Alley,’ so maybe it is an improvement? Have some of our readers watched it? What did you think?
In a 01.21.21 Los Angeles Times op-ed, Martin Scorsese urged audiences to give del Toro’s” disturbing and exhilarating” film a chance in theaters. The filmmaker claimed that “Nightmare Alley” didn’t deserve the mixed reviews it received from critics, adding that it had “a special power and resonance” which left him to “wonder if there has been a real appreciation of Guillermo’s accomplishment.”
Reviews for “Nightmare Alley” were politely positive — 70 on Metacritic, 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.0 on IMDB.