The Monster Within: Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley (2021).

Unlike in Gresham's novel, del Toro's Carlisle never becomes Reverend Stanton of the Church of the Heavenly Message, thereby negating any suggestion that his downfall is a form of divine retribution for using the trappings of religion to defraud believers. The brutality of Jacinto's actions reflects the film's backdrop of the impending victory of the Francoist forces during the Spanish Civil War, and by changing the setting of Gresham's novel to the World War II period, del Toro places Carlisle's ruthlessness within the context of Hitler's global aggression. By literalizing Carlisle's often-expressed desire to kill his father in the novel, del Toro creates a protagonist that is both Gresham's and his own. Guillermo del Toro's I Nightmare Alley i opens with its protagonist, Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), dragging a canvas-enwrapped body into a hole in the floorboards of a dilapidated farmhouse, setting the room on fire, and walking away as the isolated building burns in the background. [Extracted from the article]