Crimson Peak - directed Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Charlie Hunnan, Doug Jones, Burn Gorman, Leslie Hope, Jim Beaver, Javier Botet, Sofia Wells
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: R16 - Some bloody violence
Director Guillermo Del Toro is firmly back in "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth" territory with his latest film "Crimson Peak".
Fans will know that this is a very good thing.
Both of those movies are creepy, visually lush dark little gems and in the case of the latter hugely successful in awards terms (it won 3 Academy Awards, 3 Baftas and 2 Saturns amongst others)
"Crimson Peak" is vintage Del Toro.
It is really missing only an appearance by Ron Perlman to qualify fully as such.
But it is a dark, gothic tale about ghosts and the past coming back to bite the wicked on the butt and continues the directors lifelong fascination with spirits and movies about them.
You could think of this one as Del Toro takes on "The Haunting" but of course with his own very unique twists.
In interviews to promote "Crimson Peak" Del Toro has said that he was aiming for the movie to be creepy more than scary.
This is certainly the case - there are very few moments that are even remotely scary in this film.
In fact the trailer for Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension before this film contained more troubling moments than the entirety of "Crimson Peak".
But scares aren't the intention as Del Toro stated.
This is a good old fashioned Gothic tale - a little like running Wuthering Heights through the Roger Corman machine that produced a host of great films like "The House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum".
Mia Wasikowska plays Edith Cushing (surely that surname is no accident) an aspiring novelist who fancies herself a Mary Shelley but finds that no one of the time takes a woman seriously.
When Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston) approaches a group of investors headed by Edith's Father asking for money to assist with a mining operation the pair meet and the attraction is obvious.
Thomas is fascinated with Edith's writing - specially the ghostly elements.
What he doesn't know is that as a ten year old Edith was visited by the ghost of her Mother.
This isn't the 'just dropped in to see how my wee angel is doing' variety of dead Mother visit mind you.... this is the rotting corpse with a warning kind.
In this case she warns against Crimson Peak - a place that Edith doesn't yet know but will once she is married to Thomas and living in the damned place with he and his sister (Chastain)
These events are expedited after a particularly bloody episode involving the repeated introduction of a head to a wash basin.
There is a surprising amount of bloody violence in this film.
It's a puzzling decision and not one that I would normally raise as I like a blood splattered affair when appropriate.
In this case the cleavings, stabbings, bashings and slicings produce an R rated film that could very easily have been brought in under a PG-13 to deliver a family friendly spook flick.
I don't recall seeing a film of this ilk that had such graphic violence.
Suggestion is the usually the domain of the gothic horror.
"Pan's Labyrinth" had some blood but was generally very restrained.
If it sits oddly with the genre then at least it doesn't with the colour palette and production design which is every bit as good as we have come to expect from this director.
Del Toro's frequent director of photography Guillermo Navarro steps aside for Fernando Velazquez.
The DP of the similar fare "Mama" and "The Orphanage" he is a fine choice.
This is a seriously great looking film.
The costumes, sets, lighting and effects are all bordering on the delicious.
The camera appears ever moving. Even in dialogue scenes it slowly zooms seeming to hover over the players.
It hints at action about to happen and often fakes the audience out when nothing does.
There isn't a damned thing wrong with the technical side of this movie.
Where it does suffer however is in the script.
The first half is deliberately slow paced as the pieces are set on the board but it drags.
Worse is the predictability.
Nothing that happens from the smallest snippet of information to the biggest revelations during the climax is at all difficult to spot coming from many minutes before it hits.
This sort of film is mostly shielded from the damage that this can do to say a whodunit or a courtroom drama.
The journey is almost entirely the point and it is undeniably a fun one.
I've been a fan of Chastain and Hiddleston for some time but this is the film that has finally made me an appreciator of Wasikowska.
She carries this film and does a great job.
Her work in Jane Eyre and Madame Bovary has prepared her well in playing Edith.
I can't imagine who could have done a better job.
Chastain is also excellent in a role that is quite different for her.
She is used to playing strong characters but Lucille isn't just strong - she is dark and mysterious.
"Crimson Peak" is a frustrating movie in that it is so, so close to being amazing.
It is let down by an almost complete lack of surprises.
It asks a lot of the audience to sit through the slow pacing of the first 60 minutes then to deliver the climax that they saw coming from the start.
So much so that Charlie Hunnam's character seems to exist solely to enable it to happen.
He at first appears to be part of a looming love triangle but disappears from the action only to fulfill a role in the finale that could easily have done without him.
All that his character really serves to do is make Edith look less capable than we know she is.
She pretty much had this one sorted on her own.
Regardless of these niggles I enjoyed this film.
I am admittedly speaking as a Del Toro appreciator though.
RATING: 75/ 100
CONCLUSION: Typically lush and atmospheric fare from Del Toro. The cast are great but predicability and a slight tendency to drag a little in the first half stops this from being amongst his very best work.
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: R16 - Some bloody violence
Director Guillermo Del Toro is firmly back in "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth" territory with his latest film "Crimson Peak".
Fans will know that this is a very good thing.
Both of those movies are creepy, visually lush dark little gems and in the case of the latter hugely successful in awards terms (it won 3 Academy Awards, 3 Baftas and 2 Saturns amongst others)
"Crimson Peak" is vintage Del Toro.
It is really missing only an appearance by Ron Perlman to qualify fully as such.
But it is a dark, gothic tale about ghosts and the past coming back to bite the wicked on the butt and continues the directors lifelong fascination with spirits and movies about them.
You could think of this one as Del Toro takes on "The Haunting" but of course with his own very unique twists.
In interviews to promote "Crimson Peak" Del Toro has said that he was aiming for the movie to be creepy more than scary.
This is certainly the case - there are very few moments that are even remotely scary in this film.
In fact the trailer for Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension before this film contained more troubling moments than the entirety of "Crimson Peak".
But scares aren't the intention as Del Toro stated.
This is a good old fashioned Gothic tale - a little like running Wuthering Heights through the Roger Corman machine that produced a host of great films like "The House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum".
Mia Wasikowska plays Edith Cushing (surely that surname is no accident) an aspiring novelist who fancies herself a Mary Shelley but finds that no one of the time takes a woman seriously.
When Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston) approaches a group of investors headed by Edith's Father asking for money to assist with a mining operation the pair meet and the attraction is obvious.
Thomas is fascinated with Edith's writing - specially the ghostly elements.
What he doesn't know is that as a ten year old Edith was visited by the ghost of her Mother.
This isn't the 'just dropped in to see how my wee angel is doing' variety of dead Mother visit mind you.... this is the rotting corpse with a warning kind.
In this case she warns against Crimson Peak - a place that Edith doesn't yet know but will once she is married to Thomas and living in the damned place with he and his sister (Chastain)
 |
| Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska |
There is a surprising amount of bloody violence in this film.
It's a puzzling decision and not one that I would normally raise as I like a blood splattered affair when appropriate.
In this case the cleavings, stabbings, bashings and slicings produce an R rated film that could very easily have been brought in under a PG-13 to deliver a family friendly spook flick.
I don't recall seeing a film of this ilk that had such graphic violence.
Suggestion is the usually the domain of the gothic horror.
"Pan's Labyrinth" had some blood but was generally very restrained.
If it sits oddly with the genre then at least it doesn't with the colour palette and production design which is every bit as good as we have come to expect from this director.
Del Toro's frequent director of photography Guillermo Navarro steps aside for Fernando Velazquez.
The DP of the similar fare "Mama" and "The Orphanage" he is a fine choice.
This is a seriously great looking film.
The costumes, sets, lighting and effects are all bordering on the delicious.
The camera appears ever moving. Even in dialogue scenes it slowly zooms seeming to hover over the players.
It hints at action about to happen and often fakes the audience out when nothing does.
There isn't a damned thing wrong with the technical side of this movie.
 |
| The production design is terrific |
The first half is deliberately slow paced as the pieces are set on the board but it drags.
Worse is the predictability.
Nothing that happens from the smallest snippet of information to the biggest revelations during the climax is at all difficult to spot coming from many minutes before it hits.
This sort of film is mostly shielded from the damage that this can do to say a whodunit or a courtroom drama.
The journey is almost entirely the point and it is undeniably a fun one.
I've been a fan of Chastain and Hiddleston for some time but this is the film that has finally made me an appreciator of Wasikowska.
She carries this film and does a great job.
Her work in Jane Eyre and Madame Bovary has prepared her well in playing Edith.
I can't imagine who could have done a better job.
Chastain is also excellent in a role that is quite different for her.
She is used to playing strong characters but Lucille isn't just strong - she is dark and mysterious.
 |
| Creepy rather than scary Crimson Peak is also surprisingly bloody |
It is let down by an almost complete lack of surprises.
It asks a lot of the audience to sit through the slow pacing of the first 60 minutes then to deliver the climax that they saw coming from the start.
So much so that Charlie Hunnam's character seems to exist solely to enable it to happen.
He at first appears to be part of a looming love triangle but disappears from the action only to fulfill a role in the finale that could easily have done without him.
All that his character really serves to do is make Edith look less capable than we know she is.
She pretty much had this one sorted on her own.
Regardless of these niggles I enjoyed this film.
I am admittedly speaking as a Del Toro appreciator though.
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