I don’t like to be scared, but when Guillermo del Toro released a new horror movie, it was hard to resist going to see it.
Del Toro’s movies, such as “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Pacific Rim”, are always beautiful to look at, fun to watch and usually very creative.
“Crimson Peak” looked like it might be a creepy look at horror films of the past, as the trailers did not show the modern tricks that cause jump scares. However, not having any expectations—other than the movie would be very pretty and well-designed—was good because the movie wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either.
The film follows up-and-coming writer Edith Cushing, who is played by Mia Wasikowska, of “Alice in Wonderland” fame. As viewers learn at the beginning of the film, which takes place in the early 1900s, Cushing can see ghosts. She tries to publish a manuscript containing a ghost story but is turned down by publishers because it is handwritten, and they can tell that it was written by a woman. The manuscript gets the attention of a man trying to get money to rebuild his clay mining operation: Sir Thomas Sharpe, played by Tom Hiddleston.
Eventually the two marry, despite Sharpe’s wicked-looking sister’s objections, and move to Sharpe’s decrepit English mansion, which lies on top of the scarlet clay mine. Once they move in, the ghosts start to appear and Cushing starts to feel sick; then the hunt for the truth begins.
From the very first frame of the film, del Toro’s skill as a set designer and visual director shine, as we see a coffin carried to the front of a giant and elaborate headstone. Throughout the movie, the designs of the ghosts—which look like opaque skeletons of varying colors, depending on where they were killed—and the house where the characters live are amazings spectacles. Many parts of the house have liquid clay running from the wall, and because the clay is red, it looks like blood. Everything about the house is unnerving yet alluring at the same time.
There is not a moment in the film where there isn’t something nice to look at in the scenery or sets. Del Toro does not shy away from the creepy visuals either, but that is just what the film is. It’s creepy, not scary.
The only point in the film that would be very scary comes in the first half of the movie, but once the characters move to the mansion, the ghosts turn into something very different than expected: messengers for what’s to come.
The characters in the film were very one dimensional. If viewers have seen a movie in the last 10 years, they could probably predict what each character was going to do next. Sharpe’s sister was onscreen for maybe four seconds before I felt I knew everything there was to know about her character. The same goes for many of the characters in the film. The two main characters, Cushing and Sharpe, go through minimal character development in the film, and it’s not enough to make them interesting beyond the fact that one of them is played by Hiddleston.
One of the big issues with this movie was outside the theatre. It was advertised as a horror movie, which misinformed the viewing public. “Crimson Peak” is a classic Gothic romance, which may be hard to swallow for the people who were influenced to buy a ticket because of the deceiving trailer.
The movie is creepy the entire run time, but there is not a big scare anywhere, which is something that the old Gothic romances do quite well. There is an excellent love story between Cushing and Sharpe. The film brought to mind several different stories and novels from the era of Edgar Allen Poe, though naming them could spoil the movie, so none will be named. Those looking for a straight-up horror movie will not be pleased with this one.
At the end of the day, “Crimson Peak” will probably be divisive if you go with a group of friends. Some of them will really like it, especially if they are fans of Gothic literature, some of them will hate it because they were expecting something scarier, and some will be left with mixed feelings.
If you want to catch this crimson tale, be sure you know what you want to get out of it. In the end, don’t go because you think it will be frightening—the visuals will thrill you, but the scares will not.