Review of Crimson Peak (2015) by Jack F — 27 Feb 2017

Say what you will about Guillermo del Toro, but his films have an unmistakably distinct visual style. They have a sort of nightmarish, fairy-tale like vibe seeping out of them, which sounds contradictory, but anyone who's ever seen "The Devil's Backbone," "Hellboy II," or his magnum opus "Pan's Labyrinth" can tell you that it's 100% true. This also applies to "Crimson Peak," his latest effort, and it's probably his most visually expressive film yet. This is Guillermo del Toro filtered through Tim Burton, a film that is packed with surreal, gothic imagery. Del Toro, cinematographer Dan Laustsen, and production designer Thomas E. Sanders have outdone themselves here.

But what about the film itself? All I can really say is that if you like the enigmatic Mexican director's other films, you'll probably like this one too. While I wouldn't rank it on par with some of his other efforts (except for the visuals, which are beyond superb), it's still a bizarrely entertaining movie. Ignore the trailers, which market it as a straight forward horror flick. In reality, the movie is really more of a lurid melodrama with horror elements. It's part soap, part period piece, part ghost story, but unmistakably all del Toro. Does this mean the movie sometimes plays out like a glorified B-movie?

Oh, you bet it does. And I mean that as a compliment.

Set in 1887, the film centers around aspiring author Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), who finds herself smitten with Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), an English baronet who has come to America to seek out investors for his clay-mining machine, which he says will revolutionize the industry. Chief among his intended targets is Edith's wealthy father (Jim Beaver), a skeptical man who has his doubts about Thomas' machine, and this makes Thomas' courting of Edith all the more suspicious. But Thomas is handsome and charming and in a short period of time, Edith finds herself married to him, whereupon he whisks her away to England to live in his family home with him and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain).

The family home is really more like a ramshackle mansion, complete with a massive hole in the roof which allows for falling snow to land in the house's great hall. The proper name of the place is Allerdale Hall, but its nickname is "Crimson Peak" due to the blood-red clay in the mines beneath the mansion that occasionally seeps up through the snow due to Thomas' mining efforts. Allerdale Hall is one of the more impressive movie sets I've seen recently, and it's practically a character itself. Watching the snow around the place slowly turn red gives off a creepy and ominous feeling, almost as if the house is bleeding. That, among other things, gives off the disturbing impression that the house is alive.

It's not all creepy though. There's also a certain, haunting beauty to the sight of the snow softly falling in through Allerdale Hall's dilapidated roof. I'm not sure that it makes much practical sense and, in fact, the place oftentimes seems nigh unlivable. (Thomas hopes to restore the mansion to its proper glory once he perfects his machine and begins making money.) But logic isn't supposed to come into play here. A place nicknamed "Crimson Peak" is clearly going to be more about the visuals than any semblance of practicality.

Anyway, it doesn't take Edith long to realize there's something very strange going on in this spooky location. There's an icy disposition behind all of Lucille's surface-friendliness and Thomas keeps disappearing in the middle of the night. There's also the small matter of the skeletal ghost roaming the hallways...apparently there's a mystery to be solved here...

Truthfully there isn't much to the central secret of the movie, and even its other major reveal really isn't that much of a surprise. But that doesn't mean the build-up isn't good, and the movie is still captivating in its own way. This is mostly due to the stunning visuals and the quality of the performances, particularly Jessica Chastain's. It's pitch-perfect for the role, campy and fun, and she helps herself to a generous portion of the luscious scenery all around her. Based on this performance, I'd really love to see Jessica Chastain on "American Horror Story," vamping it up with the likes of Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, and Kathy Bates.

Many critics have accused "Crimson Peak" as being a supreme example of style over substance. I'd say that's true only to a certain extent. The movie is undoubtedly a visual feast, and the story isn't as compelling as something like "Pan's Labyrinth" or "The Devil's Backbone." But there's enough happening to keep audiences' attention, and Chastain's theatrics are the icing on the cake. Plus, the atmosphere is appropriately grim and morbid, and there's even a good fright or two. Del Toro doesn't always make great films, but he does make imaginative ones. Sometimes that's enough.