Crimson Peak

CRIMSON PEAK (12)

D: Guillermo del Toro

Universal/Legendary (Guillermo del Toro, Callum Greene, Jon Jashni & Thomas Tull)

USA 🇺🇸 2015

119 mins

Horror/Fantasy

W: Guillermo del Toro & Matthew Robbins

DP: Dan Laustsen

Ed: Bernat Vilaplana

Mus: Fernando Velazquez 

PD: Tom Sanders

Cos: Kate Hawley

Mia Wasikowska (Edith Cushing), Jessica Chastain (Lady Lucille Sharpe), Tom Hiddlestone (Sir Thomas Sharpe), Charlie Hunnam (Dr. Alan McMichael)

It wouldn't be too unfair to consider Guillermo del Toro as the Mexican Tim Burton. The filmmaker fills his movies with dark material, gothic visuals and meticulous attention paid to period detail and production design. Unfortunately, this doesn't always work when the principal focus isn't on the story, and though Crimson Peak is quite wonderful to look at, the storyline is quite dire.

Set in the Victorian Era, a young woman is torn between two lovers, a childhood sweetheart and a mysterious stranger. Following a tragic family event, she moves into a house which is seemingly haunted and more tragedy unfolds.

Aside from fine production design and costumes, the story is quite boring, with an ending which is predictable from the opening moments.

Pan's Labyrinth was probably the height of del Toro's successes, but his foray since into directing American films just haven't yet reached the filmmaker's previous heights (as of 2015, at least).

5/10