Score: 3/5
Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak” scared all with low box office numbers rather than full-fledged terror.
From the trailers, viewers would expect to grip the armrests in fear. The movie sold the movie as a horror film, but it can be more accurately described as a twisted romance thriller.
The movie takes place in the Victorian era and tells the story of Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), a young woman in her mid-twenties who loves to write novels with ghosts in them. Not ghost stories, the ghosts are simply metaphors. She would rather be like Mary Shelley and die a widow than be a Jane Austen.
She knows ghosts are real because she has seen them all her life, starting with her mother who died when she was 10. She mysteriously warned her, “Beware of Crimson Peak.”
Nevertheless, she finds herself infatuated with the stranger who makes his way into her father’s office. Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and his sister, Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain), are in town from their mansion in somewhere in Europe.
While Thomas is the dark yet charming love interest, local doctor Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam) has an unrequited love for Edith.
After a relatively quick love story, Edith and Thomas eloped and returned to their mansion with Lucille. Edith soon realizes the house is also home to many dark secrets. She is left struggling for her life.
While the film doesn’t meet the initial expectations, it proved to still be a good watch. The fact that a movie in this genre has a well-developed plot is a huge win for horror/thriller buffs. The characters are engaging and believable. Though Hunnam’s character is more of a passive role, he is still very likeable.
The mansion is visually stunning in a terrifying way. Many would not be caught dead or alive staying the night there. However, Toro creates a haunted house that is nothing short of astonishing.
The mansion is hardly living, like most things inside. There is a giant hole in the roof that lets all the weather in. The foundation is also sinking into the ground of red clay, looking like lava or ultra red and goopy blood.
There aren’t many jump-scares or bone-chilling moments, but when viewers do get a chance to see the nonliving inhabitants, they find that they are pretty disturbing. The twist is not so shocking, but still interesting.
Overall, the movie is surprising and a small breath of fresh air compared to typical horror films.