Nightmare alley (fti)

OUT NOW IN CINEMAS AND NOMINATED FOR FOUR OSCARS

A cool; cruel; rediscovered classic of American noir adapted for cinemas by Guillermo del Toro; starring Bradley Cooper; Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara

'Read and shudder. And relish' Guardian

'A creepy; all-too-harrowing masterpiece' Washington Post

Stanton Carlisle; employed as a carny at a travelling circus watches their freak-show geek - an abject alcoholic; the object of the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust and derision - and wonders how a man could fall so low. There's no way in hell; he vows; that anything like that will ever happen to him.

Unlike the tragic figure he sees before him; Stan is young; clever and ambitious and quick to learn from the other carnival acts. Initially teaming up with a beautiful but vulnerable woman as part of a double act in which he mesmerises her; Stan soon leaves his circus days behind him; becoming a successful spiritualist who exploits the weak and the wealthy.

But even the very best con-men can meet their match....

With a new introduction from James Smythe; Nightmare Alley is a forgotten classic of Depression-era America a brilliant; horrifying; compulsive journey into the true darkness of the human mind.