Take this Nightmare Alley Movie Quiz to find out which character you are. We update the quiz regularly and it’s the most accurate among the other quizzes.
We’ve already seen the character drag a corpse and set a house on fire by the time a mystifying Bradley Cooper utters his first line of dialogue as Stan Carlisle, several minutes into Guillermo del Toro’s lavishly configured take on “Nightmare Alley.” The man arrives at a 1930s traveling sideshow populated with curious acts of benign mentalism and bizarre cautionary tales as a fugitive, not from the law but from his own unresolved resentment.
Those first, hesitant words are directed at the operation’s geek, an alcoholic man dehumanized for vicious entertainment who is on the run from his captor inside a disturbing attraction warning visitors of damnation. What Stan doesn’t realize at this point in the arc of his hasty rise to the top-billing enchanter and thunderous fall is that he’s looking in the mirror. Also, you must try to play this Nightmare Alley Movie Quiz.
Nightmare Alley Movie Quiz
It’s not just because of Edmund Goulding’s 1947 film adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s original novel that we can guess where Stan’s path will take us. Even those who are unfamiliar with one or both of the materials can detect the cyclical parable established by del Toro through his understanding and repurposing of noir tropes, both visual and thematic. His film “Nightmare Alley” depicts psychological tunnels and downward spirals. Stan risks getting lost and never making it out the other side if he enters them.
The spins of an imposing Ferris wheel appear to be the most explicit example of circular symbolism. More noticeable in Tamara Deverell’s impeccable production design, which is heavy on green and gold tones, is the disorienting depth of the world when Stan arrives in Buffalo, New York: long corridors, spacious offices, and narrow streets that serve the film’s dramatic needs more than period precision.
Deverell’s work is inextricably linked to that of cinematographer Dan Laustsen, who is now on his fourth collaboration with the Mexican director and whose single-source lighting choices give the actors a timeless, glowing aura. There’s flawless artistry, and then there are del Toro’s productions, which have an almost unparalleled level of detail, at least in terms of genre cinema. Del Toro’s signature monsters aren’t entirely absent from his new vision, as a pickled creature with a third eye named Enoch floats between artifice and legend.
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Stan meets a fantastic cast of eccentric characters at the carnival. Among them are two of del Toro’s previous collaborators, played in minor roles by Clifton Collins Jr. and Ron Perlman. But it is through the odd couple Zeena (Toni Collette) and Pete (David Strathairn) that the “young buck” finds a new calling. They can pretend to read minds and guess objects while blindfolded by using a sophisticated word code. Acquiring control over the average person’s skepticism becomes the deceitful antihero’s goal, as he also courts Molly (Rooney Mara), another carnie who falls for his effortless panache.
Cooper, one of Hollywood’s most consistently intriguing actors in terms of role choices, works magic with an unassumingly sensational turn that charts the trajectory of his Stan from dubious naiveté to deranged confidence and, finally, pitiful resignation. The goal here isn’t to imitate the air of a classic star, but to make these transitions convincing enough to make us question his level of heartlessness.
There are several obvious differences between the 1947 version and del Toro’s 21st-century interpretation, namely the characters’ motivations and existential vicissitudes have been deepened. Cooper’s embodiment of a boy in the body of a man still crying for validation and raging against the world in the disguise of success to demand it, for example, gives Stan’s daddy issues a larger relevance.
For more personality and trivia quizzes check this: The King’s Man Quiz
