Crimson Peak a Gothic romance with a twist

With Crimson Peak, he makes a credible attempt to merge the two with this glossy, high-budget ghost story that yearns for the visual splendour and poetic moments of his non-studio work.

And because Crimson Peak is a vision brought forth from Gullermo del Toro’s expansive and incredibly creative mind, we are guaranteed a rambling, spooky old house full of nasty nooks and crannies, opulent costumes (honestly, it’s all about the ruffs this season ladies), and grizzly gore galore. It’s that and more.

Guillermo del Toro doesn’t merely direct movies.

Crimson Peak is more of a love story than a horror and really dives into how twisted and poisonous love can become, leading people to do unspeakable acts in the name of that four-letter word. What is happening to her in this house? Mia Wasikowska plays Edith Cushing, the smart, ambitious only daughter of Carter Cushing, played by Jim Beaver (Supernatural, Deadwood). Edith is also an aspiring novelist.

A mysterious man from England named Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) arrives in Buffalo to convince Edith’s father to invest in a state of the art clay-digging contraption that can dig up red clay for construction purposes. Edith’s dad nearly immediately develops a disdain for Sharpe. Nonetheless, his courting performance wins Edith’s heart. He easily displaces the comparatively ordinary Dr. McMichael. Hiddleston rose to fame after taking the role of villain Loki in the Avengers films but since then has secured roles in highly anticipated films like “Kong: Skull Island” and the Hank Williams Jr biopic “I Saw the Light”. At 26, the actress has already built an impressive filmography, including the title character in the excellent 2011 adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre”. Everyone wants a kind of love from the other that they can’t return. Wasikowska does what she can, too, but the horror conventions used to inform her character are trite. Snow falls through the entrance hall roof. Having seen her first ghost at 10, she’s attuned to spirits and receptive to their messages. Unfortunately for Alan, Edith ends up marrying Sharpe, and moving to his family home, where she lives with him and his sister, Lucille, played by a chilling Jessica Chastain(The Martian). “It helps me as an actor sync up with the tone of what he’s thinking about”.

Aside from a lack of imagination in the script the worst part of the film is that it fails to scare – or even make you jump (although the eerie score by Fernando Velázquez attempts to).

Guillermo del Toro’s latest is a visually sumptuous gothic romance-one that, amidst all the melodrama, offers slivers of sly wit, loving nods to classic horror, and, by the time it’s over, quite a bit of blood.