Every Guillermo Del Toro Movie Ranked Worst To Best

One of del Toro's more recent endeavours, released four years after his long-overdue Best Picture victory, Nightmare Alley is the director's loving ode to noir and Gothic horror, a complicated tale of betrayal and identity that never gets comfortable, but also never becomes boring or derivative.

The tale of a grifter who will do anything to improve his career as a carnival worker, the drama is lavishly shot and visually appealing, as vibrant as it is seductive, menacing and observant of its many twisted, mysterious characters, but it's also a touch too full.

That's not a bad thing, necessarily, but Nightmare Alley is never better than the sum of its parts. But then again, when the parts are good as Bradley Cooper's descent into madness and del Toro's stunning eye for the uncanny, it's hard to feel entirely disappointed. Even when he misses his mark, he still hits a bullseye.