Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett Plan a Psychic Grift in Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Alley’ Trailer

Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett run a psychic grift that goes south in the full trailer for director and co-writer Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.

Released Thursday by Searchlight Pictures, the trailer for del Toro’s first film since the Oscar-winning Shape of Water teases a neo-noir psychological thriller that features Cooper starring as down on his luck but charismatic “carny” Stanton Carlisle. While at a traveling carnival, Carlisle meets and endears himself to Toni Collette’s clairvoyant Zeena, as well as her mentalist husband Pete, played by David Strathairn.

Eventually, with the aid of mysterious psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Blanchett), the duo begin to plot a grift with some newly acquired knowledge, setting their target on dangerous and skeptical tycoon Ezra Grindle, played by Richard Jenkins.

In the minute-and-a-half trailer, Cooper’s Carlisle is seen answering under the pressure of a lie-detector test that he is a “true medium” and can read minds “under the right circumstances.”

“We’ve had our fair share of snake charmers in the past. We deal with them,” Grindle ominously promises.

Fellow stars Collette, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe and Clifton Collins Jr. also make appearances in the trailer that features a colorful collage of fire, money, violence, blood and deception.

Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name, with a screenplay co-written by Kim Morgan and del Toro, Cooper and J. Miles Dale serving as producers, Nightmare Alley opens in theaters on Dec. 17.