FILM DESCRIPTION:
In 1939, Stanton Carlisle burns down his house after putting a dead body inside and takes a job as a carny. When the carnival's geek becomes ill, owner Clem enlists Stan to help him dispose of the man, and explains that he seeks out alcoholics, who are often men with troubled pasts, and lures them in with promises of a temporary job and gives them opium-laced alcohol. He uses their dependence to create a geek for his carnival.

Stan works with the clairvoyant act "Madame Zeena" and her alcoholic husband, Pete. Zeena and Pete use cold reading and coded language, which Pete begins teaching to Stan. He and Zeena warn Stan not to use these skills to continue leading patrons on when it comes to the dead. Meanwhile, Stan becomes attracted to fellow performer Molly and approaches her with an idea for a two-person act away from the carnival. One night, Stan gives Pete the wrong bottle, and the old man dies from consuming wood alcohol. Stan and Molly leave the carnival.

Two years later, Stan has successfully reinvented himself as a psychic act for the wealthy elite of Buffalo, with Molly as his assistant, using Zeena and Pete's techniques. During a performance, their act is interrupted by psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter, who attempts to expose the act, but Stan bests Ritter. He is later approached by the wealthy Judge Kimball, who employed Ritter to test Stan. Now convinced of Stan's abilities, he offers to pay him to allow him and his wife to communicate with their dead son. Despite Molly's objections, Stan agrees.

Ritter invites Stan to her office. Knowing he is a con man, she is intrigued by his skill. Through recorded sessions with her clients, she has accumulated information about members of Buffalo's social elite. She and Stan begin an affair, and conspire to manipulate Kimball, with Ritter providing private information to Stan. She begins therapy sessions with Stan, who reveals his guilt over Pete's death and his hatred of his alcoholic father, who he killed in their home before joining the carnival.

CREDITS:
TM & © Searchlight Pictures
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Producers: J. Miles Dale, Guillermo del Toro, Bradley Cooper
Screenplay by: Guillermo del Toro, Kim Morgan

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