Universal Pictures
Guillermo del Toro’s latest film Crimson Peak has been sold to us for months now as a terrifying new haunted house movie, but all is not as it seems. The story even tells us that much right from the beginning when we meet Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), daughter of New York businessman Carter Cushing (Jim Beaver), and an aspiring writer. Edith is trying to get a publisher to buy her story, but they all frown upon her ghost story, telling her that because she’s a woman, it needs more romance. She insists it is just a story with a ghost, which is a metaphor for the past. Crimson Peak, it turns out, is a story with ghosts, not a ghost story.
Edith has had experiences with a ghost, that of her departed mother who has come to her twice with a warning: when the time comes, beware of Crimson Peak. Uncertain of what this means, besides terrifying the daylights out of her, Edith goes on with her life, meeting the dashing Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) who is looking for a business loan from her father to mine the red clay that lies beneath his property in England. They quickly fall in love, much to the chagrin of Dr. Alan McMichael(Charlie Hunnam), someone who has had his eye on Edith for quite some time.
Carter discovers some unsavory aspects to Sharpe’s character, and refuses him the loan, telling him to break Edith’s heart and take himself and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) back to England. Sharpe agrees, but Edith refuses to let him go without her. When Carter meets a suspiciously grisly end, Edith has no reason to stay in New York, quickly marries Sharpe and departs for England, where she finds herself in a dilapidated mansion with a giant hole in the roof, that is also sinking into the red clay, which gives the estate its nickname: Crimson Peak. Alarmed, Edith is visited by more ghosts causing her concern about what Thomas and Lucille are truly up to. McMichael is also suspicious and abruptly leaves for England to get Edith away from the Sharpes and their dark — very dark — secrets.
Crimson Peak is nothing if not just stunning to behold. The production design and costumes alone are worth seeing on the huge IMAX screen. The Sharpes’ Allerdale Hall is an imposing structure, inside and out, with several floors and an untold number of rooms, plus an elevator that goes to a subterranean level which Edith is warned to never visit because of the dangerous conditions below. It really is stunning and makes one wonder how much is an actual set and how much is CGI. The only real issue with the house, from a cinematic standpoint, it that gaping hole in the roof of the entrance hall. When Edith first arrives, autumn leaves are raining in through the hole, yet there are no trees anywhere near the house. It’s an arresting image, but it makes absolutely no sense. Neither do the giant moths that line the walls in various parts of the house, but we’ll accept them as metaphors for the mouldering insides of the home and its owners.
The ghosts, however, are fantastically frightening and the film could have used more of them to make this a real haunted house movie. Del Toro favorite Doug Jones portrays the ghosts in his inimitable style and they are the things of nightmares. But, going into the movie thinking it was a ghost story, this audience member (and many others) expected the spirits to play a significant role in the film’s climax, which they did not.
No, this is a Gothic horror story, more concerned about the darkness that resides in the Sharpes (and we won’t spoil any of their secrets here) and how the house is kind of a Picture of Dorian Gray representation of their souls. At least Lucille’s. Thomas, while not quite the stand-up gentlemen he portrays himself to be — and we’re left wondering for quite some time if he really loves Edith or if he’s just using her for her fortune — but Lucille has no redeeming qualities. She is the pure evil of Allerdale Hall that goes beyond anything the supernatural entities could inflict upon Edith. Chastain gives a terrifically chilly performance, making Lucille someone you can’t, and should never, take your eyes off of. Wasikowska, Hiddleston, Hunnam and Beaver are all top notch as well but Chastain really steals the show.
The question left at the end of Crimson Peak is, is it a good movie? Of course, if you’re familiar with del Toro’s oeuvre, it is going to be nothing short of spectacular visually. But there is just some disappointment, especially if you know of his other ghost story films and Pan’s Labyrinth, that he opted to go for the more twisted love story here over making this a true haunted house movie, and that Universal is selling this as a haunted house movie to tie in with its near-Halloween release date. It’s not a bad movie by any means, it’s just not what was expected. Perhaps on a second viewing — or now knowing going in what to expect — a viewer can better enjoy the story and all the nuances del Toro and the cast bring to it. But if you’re expecting a full-on ghost story, you may be disappointed.
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