Year: 2015
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro, Matthew Robbins
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston
Synopsis is here
Crimson Peak, Crimson Peak, where the women are strong and the men are weak. Guillermo Del Toro’s English language ode to his Spanish
language gothic drama, is an opulent, female driven beast that leans more towards Jane Austin than Ju-on.
Wonderfully carried by a spirited Mia Wasikowska performance, this gullet slicing melodrama is something that will likely frustrate those
who fell for its dubious horror-only marketing guff. The approach from the
studios has appeared to be so incorrect, that the director himself had to reinforce
his intentions beforehand.
Such is the linear view of movies these days, I wouldn’t be
surprised that people went into Crimson Peak expecting The Conjuring. I don’t
believe many expected heavy references to the literature such as the likes of Daphne
du Maurier's Rebecca (famously adapted by Hitchcock in 1940 and gloriously highlighted here by a deranged Jessica Chastian performance). Nor do I feel
that the so called “average audience” was interested in the lighter references
to the likes of Nosferatu (1922) or even the meta winks to English hammer
horror (Our lead protagonists surname? Cushing). Touches like this would
probably be deemed uninteresting to a crowd looking for Paranormal Activity
jumps.
The feverish love for the gothic melodrama, as well as the exquisite
visual design, is why this blogger adored much of Crimson Peak. It’s a film
which delights itself in the mood, it creates over rigid obedience over narrative.
The film gracefully defies logic. The murderous, over-elaborate plot dodges any
typical rationale. Meanwhile pure white snow falls delicately over the blood
red clay which Allerdale Hall resides on. A grand, decaying, English mansion seemingly
miles from anywhere.
Nowhere in England looks like this. It all feels like something
out of a monstrous fairy tale.
This is what Del Toro wants. It is not a film about
particulars, unless it involves references to literature. The visuals help pronounce
the madness. The cast is dialled to eleven, while the setting provides the psychoanalysis with Allerdale's rotten walls and sickly green lighting. It’s a film that once again highlights
Del Toro’s main interest. The monstrous designs that lie within humans and how it corrupts the environment around them.
There’s ghosts and things that go bump in the night within
Crimson Peak. However Del Toro’s feature is far more infatuated in those small
creepy inklings that tingle the spine, over cheaper shock tactics. It’s a ghost
story that is told in the way that only Guillermo can tell them. In bold, broad
and intense emotions.
