Crimson Peak

[DarkImbecile]

From the imagination of Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water) comes Crimson Peak, a lavish, stunningly realised journey into the dark heart of Gothic romance…

Beginning in Buffalo, New York, during the 1880s, Crimson Peak stars Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Stoker) as Edith Cushing, an aspiring writer who is haunted by the death of her mother. Edith’s falls in love with seductive stranger Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston, Avengers Assemble), who whisks her off to Allerdale Hall, his baronial, yet dilapidated English mansion built upon a mountain of blood-red clay. Here Edith meets Lucille (Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty), Thomas’s sister who at times seems hostile and jealous. As Edith struggles to feel at home in the imposing residence, she gradually uncovers a horrendous family secret and encounters supernatural forces that will help her discover the terrible truth behind Crimson Peak.

Boasting incredibly intricate and ornate production design and a rich visual style, del Toro’s film is a grandiose, boldly baroque triumph of Gothic decadence, which expertly combines and contrasts the sublimely beautiful with the shockingly grotesque. Crimson Peak is presented here in sumptuous special packaging, with a wealth of extra features, affording unprecedented insight in to the making of this modern Gothic classic.

LIMTED EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original 5.1 and 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and optional English 2.0 DTS Headphone:X Audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Optional Descriptive Video Service® (DVS®) for the visually impaired
• Audio commentary by co-writer and director Guillermo Del Toro
• The House is Alive: Constructing Crimson Peak, a newly edited, feature-length documentary with cast and crew interviews and extensive behind the scenes footage
• Previously unseen Spanish language interview with Guillermo Del Toro
• The Gothic Corridor, The Scullery, The Red Clay Mines, The Limbo Fog Set; four featurettes exploring different aspects of Allerdale Hall
• A Primer on Gothic Romance, the director and stars talk about the key traits of Gothic romance.
• The Light and Dark of Crimson Peak, the cast and crew talk about the film’s use of color
• Hand Tailored Gothic, a featurette on the film’s striking costumes
• A Living Thing, a look at the design, modelling and construction of the Allerdale Hall sets
• Beware of Crimson Peak, a walking tour around Allerdale Hall with Tom Hiddleston
• Crimson Phantoms, a featurette on the film’s amazing ghosts
• Kim Newman on Crimson Peak and the Tradition of Gothic Romance, a newly filmed interview with author and critic
• Violence and Beauty in Guillermo Del Toro’s Gothic Fairy Tale Films, a new video essay by the writer Kat Ellinger
• Deleted scenes
• Original trailers and TV spots
• Double-sided, fold-out poster
• Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
• Limited Edition packaging newly designed by Crimson Peak concept artist Guy Davis
• Limited edition 80-page, hard-bound book featuring new writing by David Jenkins and Simon Abrams, an archival interview with Guillermo del Toro, and original conceptual design illustrations by artists Guy Davis and Oscar Chichoni

[ermylaw]

Guillermo del Toro's latest struck me as both acceptably diverting for a mid-range offering from a director I'm predisposed to enjoy, and one of those movies that I'm fairly certain I'll like more the second time around. Some of this is due to the fact that I (somewhat inadvertently) convinced my wife - who normally can't handle anything remotely scary and especially ghost-related - that it was less a horror film than a gothic romance with supernatural elements. This is largely true, but not enough so that I wasn't regularly distracted by the whispers of "Can I look now?" coming from the jacket she hid under whenever a ghost appeared.

The other reason a second viewing would likely increase my appreciation is that I'm sure to catch more of the multitude of literary and cinematic influences and homages littering the film, from Bronte to Argento to The Innocents. Instead of just sitting back and basking in these references and the general visual sumptuousness del Toro reliably provides, I was looking for more of the inventiveness and originality of my favorite del Toro films, like Pan's Labyrinth and Cronos; I suspect that I'll be able to appreciate the more modest but still worthwhile pleasures Crimson Peak provides once freed from the burden of living up to the director's high points.

Among these are the almost oppressively detailed production design, a few mild but inventive scares (unfortunately almost entirely spoiled by the much maligned and misleading Universal ad campaign), and a delightfully deranged performance from Chastain. I hear reception for Chastain's work has been fairly mixed, but I thought she was actually the high point of the central roles, from fairly good (Wasikowska) to uneven (Hiddleston) to noticeably poor (Hunnam).

Finally, a minor note, but one that would have sent me out of the theater far less willing to be even somewhat positive about the film had it gone a different way:

SpoilerShow

the final shot of Chastain's ghost at the piano, which in so many lesser movies would have ended with a cheap and wholly predictable jump scare, but instead lingered just long enough and added a welcome touch of melancholy after an overly neat wrap-up.

Edited to correct dangling participle

I agree with certain aspects of your review, but I disagree with what seems to be your overall favorable opinion on the film.

The production design is "oppressively detailed." That is the high point of the film to be certain. It could be that the design is distracting from the other elements of the film, but for me the plot seemed incredibly rudimentary. On the whole, I'd say that the film is all design with no substance -- form without function or purpose, as if the plot were an afterthought to allow for the beautiful design.

You have an excellent point about the final shot, but aside from that shot, the ending seemed misplaced to me given the slow pacing that led to it. I think you're right in your description of the ending in your spoiler.

As for the performances, I thought Chastain did well, providing, by far, the most memorable performance. On the whole, I found the film to be lacking, which is sad given how incredible it looks and how impressive the world in which the film takes place seems and appears.

[DarkImbecile]

I agree with certain aspects of your review, but I disagree with what seems to be your overall favorable opinion on the film.

I think we agree more than may be apparent from my brief thoughts above, but I think my ex post facto resetting of expectations when it was apparent that the film was not aiming to be what I wanted it to be going in allowed me to focus on the enjoyable elements and downplay the problematic areas (including the familiar plot beats and the sub-par acting; I gave it a 63/100 on my Dynamic Top Ten List).

Maybe I'm going too far in my attempt to avoid being one of those filmgoers whose most common reaction is "That wasn't the movie I wanted it to be!", but I do think there are nuggets of value here and nothing so offensively sub-par to steer clear of the movie entirely, especially if one is, as I am, a fan of del Toro's.

[ermylaw]

I'd say that 63/100 is a score I'd agree with. I had the luxury of having no expectations for this film -- I saw one trailer, one time and did not pre-watch reading.

[YnEoS]

I enjoyed the film overall, and I thought the last third or so of the film was spectacular. The tone in the beginning felt a bit muddled, it took me a while to figure out what game the film was playing, and it didn't really do much to hook me along.

SpoilerShow

In the first section of the film we're kind of privy to Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain's plot, but not full privy to it. So we're in Mia Wasikowska's POV, but we can't fully root for her because she's being duped and all her actions move her towards being further duped. As excited as I was for her to leave home and live with Tom Hiddleston in a creepy house writing creepy books, I knew the plan wouldn't come off so well so I couldn't get fully invested. Now the film could have let the viewer in on the diabolical machinations of said evil plot, and I would've be cringing as Mia Wasikowska gets further tangled in their evil plot. It seemed like the film was stuck in between, I was neither excited for Mia Wasikowska to go off and marry Tom Hiddleston, nor smirking mischievously alongside the evil siblings. There's some foreshadowing of the future conflict between Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain's by his going off script, but again I didn't feel I knew enough for the significance of this to be completely interesting.

In the next section, we throw in more ghosts, but this kind of made me more confused because Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain are so spooky and talk about ghosts and dead things, that I thought they were on the same side of the ghosts. I didn't really know what the ghost sections were developing towards, and they kind of felt like horror elements that didn't fully belong and were just squeezed in. These scenes functioned to hint that something was amiss, but we already knew that something was amiss and the sense of uncovering some disturbing hidden secret was kind of obscured by the cheap scares for me.

Once I kind of figured out where the film was going and we get some conflict between Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain to make the proceeding more interesting, then I really got drawn it. All the sordid events unfolded in a pretty logical and engaging manner from that point on for me.

I think what the film was trying to do was a hard thing to pull off. There are several weird elements to the film, the ghosts, and the incestuous evil siblings with their diabolical plan to steal rich women's money for their clay mine. This is all fine, but I think the film needed to very carefully control how the information is fed to the viewer and really tightly manage their expectations and how the plot unfolds. I loved the story once all facts were out on the table, but the building up to that point came across a clumsy to me.

[TMDaines]

What stood out for me in this film were the colours. In a world of teal and orange, this was such a refreshing change. The initial palette is overwhelmingly gold and yellow with strong blacks – and what blacks! Some are so dark that there is almost the crushing of detail, particular during one scene in a park at the end of which Lucille and Thomas converse during a close up. Then there is the red. The reds are sparse at first, but their presence is so intense that you cannot ever overlook them. Take the rose Lucilla wears during the evening dance, for example. As the film progresses the yellow tint fades away and the frame is ever more frequently peppered with crimson. I thought this was a fantastic device for dictating the mood of the film.

[colinr0380]

I must admit that the trailers I have seen for this film so far have been giving me worrying flashbacks to the wacky, gothic, Haunted Mansion-style funhouse that was Jan de Bont's gaudy remake of The Haunting. Though I have faith that Guillermo del Toro will have more control over the tone of his film, and of course even if Crimson Peak is full of overly elaborate architecture and obvious ghosts and ghouls flying about it will still have the upper hand in not actually being an overly literal remake of a film that was best known for its subtlety and implication!

[hanshotfirst1138]

Special kudos to another extraordinary Jessica Chastain performance, all bristling, jagged, broiling repressed sexuality.

[domino harvey]

I was taken aback by how uninvolving and mediocre this film was, with all its halfway earnest co-optings of better Gothic sources. Ultimately there was no reason for the film to have ghosts (and poorly rendered CGI ones at that), and as with Cinderella, I found myself mostly left with some fine costumes to admire and not much more. Jessica Chastain's the only actor who even registers here, and even then only in the last fifteen minutes or so when the repression goes out the window and she gets to chew the dilapidated scenery. I've yet to see a del Toro film I cared for, and I'm not too interested in doling out more chances

[petoluk]

Ultimately there was no reason for the film to have ghosts (and poorly rendered CGI ones at that), ...

Not that it'd change your opinion, but the majority of the ghost effects were actually physical (i.e. actors in rubber suits), just with some transparency & stuff [too much stuff, perhaps?] added in post. One of the featurettes on the Blu-ray delves into this in some detail.

[BillPardy]

The other reason a second viewing would likely increase my appreciation is that I'm sure to catch more of the multitude of literary and cinematic influences and homages littering the film, from Bronte to Argento to The Innocents.

How about the nod to The Changeling with the red bouncy ball and the bathtub?

[Lost Highway]

Even a ghost story or a "gothic romance" needs to be rooted in some sort of reality to work, unless a film aspires to become a sort of fever dream along the lines of Argento's Mothers trilogy or David Lynch's films, which are set in their own universe. Even Corman's highly stylised Poe films establish a world which was in synch with its drama and characters. Crimson Peak never finds the right tone. Overwhelmed by its own art direction and underpowered on the ideas and character front it takes the "house as character" idea of films like The Haunting over the top on a visual level, while not really doing much with it. Hill House in The Haunting felt oppressive and subtly "off", while still convincing as a real place. The house in Crimson Peak sailed in from one of Tim Burton's stop frame animation films. Del Toro also seems to think that to give the heroine in a period drama the ambition to have a career is enough when it comes to character traits. Crimson Peak is a pastiche of the gothic romance which doesn't understand what makes classics of the genre like Jane Eyre or Rebecca tick, rather than a worthwhile addition.

Del Toro continues to be the most dissappointing director working in Hollywood. For some reason I get my hopes up for every film of his. They always tend to look great on paper, but they never deliver asides from some nice visual conceits. I liked The Devil's Backbone and the first half of Mimic, but that's about it.

[barryconvex]

del toro is the most over rated director working today. he absorbs and regurgitates the ephemera of certain classics but catches none of their essence, like a reverse brian depalma. put another way, just because you saw the innocents and the george c. scott changeling 50 times doesn't mean you have a story of your own to tell. piece of shit movie...

[thirtyframesasecond]

I was taken aback by how uninvolving and mediocre this film was, with all its halfway earnest co-optings of better Gothic sources. Ultimately there was no reason for the film to have ghosts (and poorly rendered CGI ones at that), and as with Cinderella, I found myself mostly left with some fine costumes to admire and not much more. Jessica Chastain's the only actor who even registers here, and even then only in the last fifteen minutes or so when the repression goes out the window and she gets to chew the dilapidated scenery. I've yet to see a del Toro film I cared for, and I'm not too interested in doling out more chances

Cronos is still his best movie. He's like Peter Jackson, he's worked with such stratospheric budgets that it's almost impossible for him to make a good lower-budget film now.

[dustin]

Decaying mansion, snowy weather, blood red clay make a beautiful backdrop for this spoiled school girl ghost/love story (just like Edith's manuscript). You realize that all del Toro's ghost stories/fairy tales are just that. That this fat, bearded Mexican man has always had a sensibility of a school girl and bloodier imagination. Any way you look at it, there is no denying how gorgeous the film is. I'm very glad I caught it on the big screen.

[R0lf]

And worse that it was sold as an example of leading women in cinema but the plot is two women fighting over a man and wouldn't have passed the Bechdel test if it wasn't for the park scene at the start of the movie.

[matrixschmatrix]

Decaying mansion, snowy weather, blood red clay make a beautiful backdrop for this spoiled school girl ghost/love story (just like Edith's manuscript). You realize that all del Toro's ghost stories/fairy tales are just that. That this fat, bearded Mexican man has always had a sensibility of a school girl and bloodier imagination. Any way you look at it, there is no denying how gorgeous the film is. I'm very glad I caught it on the big screen.

I don't think that description fits literally a single one of his movies?

And worse that it was sold as an example of leading women in cinema but the plot is two women fighting over a man and wouldn't have passed the Bechdel test if it wasn't for the park scene at the start of the movie.

This seems an immensely inapt description of the movie. I mean, it's absolutely a movie based in gothic romance, so the general Jane Eyre/Rebecca plot of a woman who gets involved in a relationship with a man harboring ugly secrets, reflected in the architecture of the building in which the story takes place, is obviously going to be central, but the Edith doesn't particularly see herself as fighting for Thomas- she has, as far as she is concerned, won Thomas, and is fighting for knowledge and for security in her place in the home. Thomas himself is very much a cipher, and virtually everything about him is either a facade or a distraction; he's not the central figure who grows and changes over the course of the events of the movie, he is not the eyes of the movie, and he is not ultimately the most interesting person in the movie (I would say those are Edith, Edith, and Lucille, respectively) so I think describing it as being a woman-centered movie is actually pretty, pretty fair.

[TMDaines]

The film would comfortably pass the Bechdel test anyway, since the central theme of the film, as Matrix has pointed out, is about the power struggle between the two women and not solely via discussions over Thomas.

[dustin]

Decaying mansion, snowy weather, blood red clay make a beautiful backdrop for this spoiled school girl ghost/love story (just like Edith's manuscript). You realize that all del Toro's ghost stories/fairy tales are just that. That this fat, bearded Mexican man has always had a sensibility of a school girl and bloodier imagination. Any way you look at it, there is no denying how gorgeous the film is. I'm very glad I caught it on the big screen.

I don't think that description fits literally a single one of his movies?

Sorry, I meant to say was that all his ghost stories/fairy tales come off as if it's coming from the sensibilities of a spoiled school girl fantasy.

[Mr Sausage]

Decaying mansion, snowy weather, blood red clay make a beautiful backdrop for this spoiled school girl ghost/love story (just like Edith's manuscript). You realize that all del Toro's ghost stories/fairy tales are just that. That this fat, bearded Mexican man has always had a sensibility of a school girl and bloodier imagination. Any way you look at it, there is no denying how gorgeous the film is. I'm very glad I caught it on the big screen.

I don't think that description fits literally a single one of his movies?

Sorry, I meant to say was that all his ghost stories/fairy tales come off as if it's coming from the sensibilities of a spoiled school girl fantasy.

How so?

[beamish13]

I was taken aback by how uninvolving and mediocre this film was, with all its halfway earnest co-optings of better Gothic sources. Ultimately there was no reason for the film to have ghosts (and poorly rendered CGI ones at that), and as with Cinderella, I found myself mostly left with some fine costumes to admire and not much more. Jessica Chastain's the only actor who even registers here, and even then only in the last fifteen minutes or so when the repression goes out the window and she gets to chew the dilapidated scenery. I've yet to see a del Toro film I cared for, and I'm not too interested in doling out more chances

Cronos is still his best movie. He's like Peter Jackson, he's worked with such stratospheric budgets that it's almost impossible for him to make a good lower-budget film now.

I wholeheartedly agree. The constraints of working with modest budgets inspired their best works, and I wish they could return to those earlier sensibilities, but I don't think
they'll ever recapture what they once had.

[dustin]

Sorry, I meant to say was that all his ghost stories/fairy tales come off as if it's coming from the sensibilities of a spoiled school girl fantasy.

How so?

And I mean it as best possible way. I do love his morbid sensibilities dealing with children - Cronos, Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth and now to some extent, Crimson Peak. All these films have a sense of sweetness to them that I don't find many male directors are interested in exploring/oblivious to. That's why my lady loves his films even though they are spiked with shocking violence and gore but hates the films of 10 year old boy directors like Luc Besson or Peter Jackson.

Can I post in other threads now? Am I cool enough for this forum?

[Werewolf by Night]

Am I cool enough for this forum?

Not if you're going to insist on saying "my lady."

[matrixschmatrix]

Sorry, I meant to say was that all his ghost stories/fairy tales come off as if it's coming from the sensibilities of a spoiled school girl fantasy.

How so?

And I mean it as best possible way. I do love his morbid sensibilities dealing with children - Cronos, Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth and now to some extent, Crimson Peak. All these films have a sense of sweetness to them that I don't find many male directors are interested in exploring/oblivious to. That's why my lady loves his films even though they are spiked with shocking violence and gore but hates the films of 10 year old boy directors like Luc Besson or Peter Jackson.

Can I post in other threads now? Am I cool enough for this forum?

I mean- I don't think you're entirely wrong, there's an interesting combination of delicacy and brutality at the heart of a lot of Del Toro's child centric movies that I think represents a better sense of how the world actually looks to children than most of the pabulum aimed at them manages- but you have to see that calling eg Pan's Labyrinth a 'spoiled school girl fantasy' sounds pejorative (to put it mildly) and unintentionally allies you with Vidal's viewpoint (that Ofelia is a spoiled child).

[Mr Sausage]

Del Toro's sensibility is only odd in that it's old fashioned. Otherwise, it's a form of gothic romanticism where lurid horror is combined with naive (I mean this non-pejoratively) sentimentality. In del Toro's case, these things run to extremes and are fit into more modern forms of popular entertainment. In the case of Crimson Peak, he's outright gone back to 18th century gothic novels. It might seem schoolgirlish only because extravagant and romantic sentimentality has been out of fashion for centuries and is usually dismissed as being immature and feminine.

This combination of the grotesque and the naive is what I like most about Hellboy 2, the only del Toro movie I unreservedly like. It finds a nice balance there.