Great cast and casting. Sets and production design were fantastic. It was in color, of course, but it was SO dark I had to wonder if it wouldn't have been better shot in B&W so the cinematographer could have played more with light, shadows and contrast. The screenplay wasn't what I expected but the performances didn't disappoint. Worth seeing on the big screen, but it had the misfortune of opening in the same week as a Spider Man movie. I was the one solitary person in the theater for Nightmare Alley. The IMAX and several traditional screens in the complex were packed with Spidey fans.. It's too bad NA will probably have more viewership on big home TV screens.

Sucked. Rather watch Biden ramble for 2.5 hours.

Just as ugly and beautiful as any classic noir, del Toro’s dark, dazzling three-ring Hollywood circus proves the old-fashioned event film still has a lot of life left.

With a semi-playful nod to the 1945 film Detour and more than a few rain-drenched streets, Nightmare Alley pays tribute to noir. But it’s also its own dark snow globe, luminous and finely faceted, and one of del Toro’s most fluent features.

Sheri Linden

The Hollywood Reporter

This sordid excavation into the hollowness of a human soul is a strange fit for a director who’s spent his career searching for magic in the darkest margins of our world, but del Toro’s natural empathy for even the most damnable creatures he finds there sparks new life into “Nightmare Alley” as it narrows towards its inevitable dead end.