Nightmare Alley

How this film uses it

Stan first watches a geek, a performer who bites the head off a live chicken, when he walks into the carnival. At the end, he is offered a drink and a job as a geek. The repeat shows how far he has fallen and that the cycle was always there.

Where to see it

The ending: months later, a homeless Stan finds a new carnival, is offered a job as a geek, accepts and laughs.

How this film uses it

Stan rises from carnival hand to star psychic for Buffalo's elite, and each step up sets up the same fall. The man who looked down at a geek ends up as one.

Where to see it

The Buffalo act: two years later, Stan runs a successful psychic act for Buffalo's rich audiences.

How this film uses it

The film opens with Stan hiding his dead father under the floorboards and burning the house. How his father died comes much later, in one flashback. It changes how you read the man you have been following.

Where to see it

The flashback: after fleeing Ritter's office, a flashback shows that Stan killed his bedridden father by exposing him to the cold.

How this film uses it

Cinematographer Dan Laustsen has said the team lit the film like a black-and-white movie and shot it in color, with strong contrast. Faces sit half in light and half in shadow. That fits a story about people who hide things.

Where to see it

Ritter's office: Stan goes to collect his savings and learns that Lilith Ritter has been manipulating him.

How this film uses it

Stan learns cold reading and coded patter from Madame Zeena and her husband Pete. He later uses the skills on grieving people. Once you know the method, you watch the trust of the marks as a sad thing.

Where to see it

The Kimball reading: Judge Kimball asks Stan to contact the couple's dead son, and Stan's act pays well.