Crimson Peak

Crimson Peak (2015)

70% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 209 reviews)

Runtime: 119 minutes

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver

From: Universal/Legendary

This was a rare Redbox rental for me yesterday. This polarizing movie captured my attention in part because it is so polarizing. Turns out, I only rated it as average, which is at least better than all those people who say they hated the film. I explain it all in my Letterboxd review below: 

Yesterday I ended up going to a location with a Redbox, and I had a choice of seeing a few different recent releases. I selected this one, mainly because it's been so polarizing. While not as drastic as Man of Steel (I don't think a more polarizing popular motion picture could possibly be made) I still saw ratings and opinions all over the board for this. I was helped that I knew beforehand how inaccurately it was marketed by Universal so I knew it wouldn't be a straight-up horror picture.

I presume most know the general plot of how it revolves around early 20th century Buffalo, New York (a rare time in cinema a movie takes place in that city) before moving to England and how you deal with a young female author, her family/friends and a rather odd brother/sister from the UK who enters their lives, so I'll move on from that. I'll say that in this story filled with the iris out technique (you know, what you see in cartoons when the screen turns black except for a shape around a character's face and it zooms in on the face until it becomes all black; what an odd stylistic choice by Del Toro), I can say that the visuals are great. While there are some things that are on the pretentious side, it still is a film that looks great; aside from nailing the Gothic aesthetic they were going for, many different colors were seen on screen and it was beautiful to look at. If I would have seen this on the big screen (which almost happened) I know I would have loved seeing it that way.

As for the story, the general idea of what it's about is fine with me. I was also OK with it “being a story with ghosts, rather than a ghost story” (a meta comment on this that was actually said in the film concerning the lead girl and a story she wrote). Problem is, in execution it does not work. I can't go into detail without mentioning spoilers so I will say that for me, it did not work. The film telegraphs things rather loudly (but not as loudly as the score when there are jump scares; yes, this sadly has jump scares) to the point it's extremely predictable and it's one of those things where you figure out things much sooner than the lead does. I can't really complain about the cast-although maybe Guillermo should move on from Charlie Hunnam-and Tom Hiddleston in his role was great casting. I wish the storytelling and characters could have matched up to the visuals, but alas...

Without any doubt I can understand why I have seen so many different opinions regarding this motion picture. I can at least rate it as average due to its looks and the general idea of the story. I wish it would have turned out better as I have no issues with Del Toro and has others have noted in recent times, we need more original ideas such as this at the box office rather than the rehashed or hackneyed or lazy poppycock we commonly see get wide releases in the United States.