Guillermo Del Toro is one of the few directors that I would legitimately classify as visionary. His directorial list has been very hit or miss. We can all admit that Mimic, Hellboy II, and Pacific Rim were right crap. Hellboy and Blade II were decent. And Pan's Labyrinth is not only his best film but one of the best films ever made. The one thing that all of these films have in common is the way they are filmed. They are gorgeously shot. Pacific Rim was a blatant Independence Day ripoff, but it looked spectacular. Hellboy has some of the best makeup effects from the genre and even though the sequel sucked, the entire scene at the bazaar was full of unbelievably creative looking monsters and mutants. Coming from a background in makeup, there's one thing you can always count on in a Guillermo Del Toro movie and that is it's going to look amazing. Pan's Labyrinth is one of the most gorgeous movies I've ever seen. And so is Crimson Peak. And while I did enjoy the movie, especially from a visual standpoint, there was a lot missing from the film that I realized later after I wasn't distracted by the cinematography and art direction any longer.
Edith (Mia Wasikowska) is an aspiring female author who writes about ghosts because she's seen them all her life. She's soon wooed by a strange English gentleman, Thomas (Tom Hiddleston) there with a business proposition for her father. Once her father is strangely murdered, Edith escapes her life in America, marries Thomas and goes back to his estate where he lives with his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain). While in the gloomy house, Edith starts to see ghosts again-- horrifying looking entities that seem to be trying to issue her a warning about new husband and sister-in-law as they have their own sinister plans in the mix.
It's a straight up gothic romance film with elements of haunted house ghost story horror sprinkled in. It's really in a genre all its own, but (and I usually hate when reviewers use this cliche) the house is the main character of the film. It's gorgeously constructed and a perfect place to use for a gothic period piece. Del Toro, throughout the film, continuously proves he is an artist and a master at his craft of direction. I didn't want to take my eyes of the screen. And while I was interested in the mystery surrounding the plot, it was every shot, every angle, every turn down the halls of the house that kept me watching the screen, unblinking. The actors all did their part, looking like a supporting cast to the actual star of the film. Mia Wasikowska shows again that she should be in more films as she's a capable actress able to play a strong, but naive female character. Hiddleston, as always, is a wonder to watch. He moves and speaks as if he's in a dream which only helps to entrance the audience further. Jessica Chastain was also good, though it was hard to find the good through the abysmal British accent she unjustly attempted to do. But, it truly is the house that steals the show.
Where it all went kind of south for me was in the execution of the story. And while Del Toro has proven that he should be behind the camera for any movie, he may not have the writing chops to pull off his own script. What was underwhelming for me is that there really was no crazy or unexpected reveal at the ending. As the movie pushes forward everything I kept expecting to happen... happened. I'm the last person to go into a movie trying to solve the puzzle. I try to avoid this at all costs so that the reveal will be that much more rewarding. There are those that say they picked up on the twist ending of The Visit in the first twenty minutes of the film. And yeah, looking back at it now, it was pretty obvious, but I didn't pick up on it because I didn't want to. The same went with Crimson Peak. I didn't want to figure it out in my head, but it kept going down a path that what I assumed was going to happen... happened. And this isn't necessarily a good thing. You don't want your audience assuming the next scene because then there's no real reason to ever watch the film. If you're able to guess the plot as well as the ending, then you've failed as a writer. The strange part was... I was never unhappy when I found out it was going exactly as I expected, and I now know why. I didn't care because for this movie, it didn't matter what was about to happen or the answers to the mystery because I was distracted by how gorgeously the movie was shot. Most of the time this distraction would leave me feeling cheated, but in this instance I didn't. It's a rare film where the plot doesn't really hold its own and is essentially very thin and predictable, but due to the lush set design and Del Toro's eye for the Gothic aesthetic... it kept me interested.
The other problem I had with the film is that there is no explanation of why Edith can see the ghosts. And while I promise this isn't a spoiler... to me, there didn't seem to be a point for the ghosts other than the fact that they look gnarly. Yes, they're helping Edith solve her mystery, but every time she figures out a new part of it, it's not because of the supernatural. It's due to an actual clue provided by a very real and incriminating piece of evidence. To me, if you took all of the ghosts and supernatural out of the film... nothing changes. This kind of urks me a little bit, but again, it still didn't ruin the film for me. And I may have been watching it with veil-covered eyes, but the beauty and style of the film were enough to overlook a weak plot.
Crimson Peak is a film that looks like it was the strange lovechild of Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allen Poe. It's a horror film that, while it isn't all that scary, will still provide much needed chills in this Halloween season. Yes, the plot is nothing to write home about, it's the everything surrounding the plot that makes the film worthwhile. Under an lesser of a director the film would be instantly forgotten. And even if you walk out of the theater hating everything you just went through and feeling a bit manipulated by the simplistic plot... the images of the film will stay with you just as Pan's Labyrinth did almost a decade ago.
The plot, the script, the mystery and the reveal... C-
but... because of Del Toro's wonderful and gorgeous direction and set design...
B-
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