In a 01.21.21 Los Angeles Times op-ed titled “Martin Scorsese wants you to watch ‘Nightmare Alley. Let him tell you why,” the master himself makes the case for cinephiles to give a chance to Guillermo del Toro’s ”disturbing, but exhilarating” film.

Scorsese claims that del Toro’s film received some kind of raw end of the deal with critics and at the box-office, stating that it has “a special power and resonance” which left him to “wonder if there has been a real appreciation of Guillermo’s accomplishment”. Fair enough.

The reviews for “Nightmare Alley” were politely positive — a 69 on Metacritic, 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and a solid audience score of 7.4 on IMDB.

What seems to be irking Scorsese is that these are not the kind of rave reviews del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” got. No, “Nightmare Alley” has been received by critics via a positively respectful, but muted response.