While Nightmare Alley is a bit different than any of Guillermo Del Toro's other films, it turns out he managed to tie it to one of his other projects. In fact, Del Toro and his art director Tamara Deverell managed to tie insert an easter egg from one of his lesser-known horror movies into Nightmare Alley.

Deverell and Del Toro worked together on Mimic, a movie about a giant bug that is able to disguise itself as a human being wearing a trench coat in order to lure people near it so that it can feed. The movie, starring Mira Sorvino was not a particularly critical or financial success. However, it didn't derail Del Toro's career and allowed him and Deverell to reunite on Nightmare Alley. When they did indeed get to work again, they decided to put an easter egg from the earlier film in the most recent film noir horror.

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Speaking in an interview with /Film, the art director explained that she and Guillermo Del Toro decided to put a Jesus Saves sign into NIghtmare Alley that had also been displayed prominently in Mimic. She explained that in the first movie, the sign features prominently in one scene where there is a priest running from the creature in Mimic. The sign eventually falls, as an apparent nod towards the priest not being saved from the monster at all.

jesus saves nightmare alley

Deverell went on to say that while she couldn't believe that they were going to build the sign again for Nightmare Alley, she was definitely on board when Del Toro told her his plans. While Deverell said that it was fun to build that sign and use it in Nightmare Alley, Mimic apparently does not bring back happy memories for Guillermo Del Toro. The famed director has gone on record as saying his experience with Mimic was hellish, especially because of how unpleasant his experiences with producer Harvey Weinstein were.

Del Toro even said that those experiences were so bad that he briefly thought about leaving the business altogether. However, he managed to stick it out and continue on to become one of the most respected and famous directors and producers in Hollywood. This also allowed him to make films that have been much better received by both critics and the general audience. That includes Nightmare Alley, which has mostly been met with positive reviews across the industry.

Nightmare Alley will premiere in theatres on December 17th, 2021.

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Source: /Film