Crimson Peak, set in the late 1800’s, focuses on the young and rather unwordly Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska). Edith is the daughter of wealthy American businessman Carter Cushing (the scrumptious Jim Beaver). She receives a visit from the ghost of her mother who warns her to beware of Crimson Peak. Jump forward fourteen years and Edith considers herself a writer but, much to the chagrin of her editor, she would prefer to scribe about the supernatural than succumb to demands to pen romantic fiction.
Into her life stomps suave English baronet Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and his sister Lady Lucille (Jessica Chastain). Edith’s father takes an instant dislike to the pair and he’s not alone in doing so, as Edith’s mother pops up in ghost form to warn again about Crimson Peak. A romance blossoms between Edith and Sir Thomas which troubles her father. Along with Edith’s childhood friend Dr. Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam), her Carter Cushing enlists the services of a private investigator who unearths unhealthy details about the Sharpe duo.
Using the information Carter tells Sir Thomas break off his affair with Edith and agree to return to England but wouldn’t you just know, soon after Carter is brutally murdered. His death is ruled as accidental – a bit of a push given his head has been beaten several times on the side of a sink which broke from the constant blows.
Barely grieving Edith is soon married to Sir Thomas and returns to his English home of Allerdale Hall in the Lake District, where he lives in with his sister. The house is a little on the ruined side with gaping big, and I mean BIG, holes in the ceiling. Soon Edith finds that Lucille has become just as chilly as the house, her husband distant and that’s before ghosts start popping up and chasing her about.
Expectations were high for director Guillermo del Toro’s gothic horror romance prior to release. In fact everytime del Toro has a film forthcoming, even one he merely contemplates directing, film fans start dribbling in anticipation. But where were they when Crimson Peak received its theatrical release? Locally in little over a week the film had disappeared from cinema screens despite many critics given this genre piece an overall thumbs up.
From a personal point of view I’ve never quite got the ‘del Toro’ vibe. Pan’s Labyrinth was astonishingly good but one can not coast along on the reputation of one decent film alone. Elsewhere Pacific Rim left one disappointed and even his prior forays into the horror genre, Cronos and The Devil’s Backbone, didn’t really up to being a wholly satisfying experience. Perhaps I was not alone. Perhaps other people felt the same and decided to give del Toro’s fantastically overblown Crimson Peak a miss. It’s a shame as for the first time in a long while he has directed something definitely worthy of the hyperbole his name affords him.
Technically it’s a triumph with the camera weaving constantly, the sumptuous costume design and production design. This is a must for fans of Gothic romances and is arguably the most stylish since Coppola took on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The director wanted his film to look like a Mario Bava Technicolor flick. He has succeeded, the film bleeds ripe colours. The performances are uniformly excellent with both Hiddleston and Chastain mesmerising. Chastain, who was in the so-so del Toro production Mama (2013), provides an acting masterclass as the chilly Lucille. You can’t tear your eyes away from her. She’s absolutely compelling.
There are nods to Stephen King’s The Shining (1980) – the snow, the victim rising from the bath – del Toro admits to Kubrick’s film being an influence, along with The Innocents (1961), The Haunting (1963) and The Omen (1976). Speaking of King, both he and his writer son Joe Hill attended an early screening of Crimson Peak. King enthused that the film was ‘gorgeous and just fucking terrifying’ adding that it electrified him the same way that Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead had back in 1982.
If you’re looking for cheap scares this is not that film, it’s more atmospheric and whether contempory audiences ‘get it’ remains to be seen however I am sure that with time Crimson Peak will be rightly afforded the status it already deserves as a genre highlight. This film is layered, there’s the surface story and themes, that most will settle at in their viewing, but it’s richer than that, with much more lying beneath.