Review: Crimson Peak

Beginning in NY around the turn of the 20^th Century, Mia Wasikowska plays Edith Cushing, daughter of a successful widowed businessman (Jim Beaver), and with ambitions to become a writer. She finds herself quite taken with a visiting Englishman with hopes of getting Edith’s father to finance his newfangled clay-digging machine. Named Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), he also develops feelings for Edith in quick fashion. Edith’s father doesn’t like the cut of his jib (possibly because Sir Thomas is far less wealthy than his title suggests) and turns his business proposal down. Having further investigated the young man’s past, he also finds that he doesn’t want him hanging around his daughter, paying him to break it off with her and go back to England. It’s not long after this that Edith’s father is found brutally slain by an unknown assailant. Sir Thomas, upon hearing this news decides to come back for Edith, telling her the truth of why he went away, and they quickly pick up where they left off. She moves in with Sir Thomas and his frosty sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) at their increasingly rundown English castle named Crimson Peak. Here Edith is haunted by ghostly visions and slowly comes to realise that Sir Thomas and Lucille aren’t everything they first appear to be. Charlie Hunnam plays would-be suitor Dr. Alan McMichael, essentially the film’s Ashley Wilkes (i.e. A boring-as-fuck nice guy).

 

What director Guillermo del Toro (“Cronos”, “Blade II”, “Hellboy”, “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “Pacific Rim”) and his co-writer Matthew Robbins (the not-bad “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”, writer-director of the fun 80s fantasy flick “Dragonslayer”) give us here in this 2015 flick is so very much me in a lot of ways, that I’m not even all that bothered by the fact that it’s a trifle too familiar. Like del Toro’s “Pacific Rim”, I’d probably prefer to watch a lot of the films this one is influenced by, but both are enjoyable in their own right. Yes, the familiarity of the trajectory here does stop me from loving it, but it certainly doesn’t stop me from liking it quite a bit.

 

Gothic horror-infused romance, a fantastically creepy house that has creaky pipes and red-tinged water, mysterious and moody suitors who may or may not have good intentions: totally my kind of romance flick. One of the main characters is even named Cushing. Sure, Price would be a more appropriate name, but still I dug it. Aside from Hitchcock’s overrated “Rebecca”, Gothic or even Southern Gothic films with a romantic bent are definitely up my alley, and del Toro seems to feel similarly. In fact, speaking of “Rebecca”, this is probably “Rebecca” done right in my view, but also containing elements of Mario Bava, Roger Corman’s Edgar Allen Poe flicks (the deep reds, blacks and whites in the colour scheme scream Corman/Price/Poe to me), Jane Eyre (the brooding Orson Welles version), a little Bram Stoker, and a sprinkling of Grimm’s Fairy Tales to boot. Quite possibly the best-looking film of 2015, del Toro clearly knows how to paint a damn purdy picture. There’s a particularly great use of shadow by cinematographer Dan Laustsen (“Brotherhood of the Wolf”, “Silent Hill”) as well. Is his employment of irises pretentious? Absolutely, and if you think that’s a bad thing, this is so very much not a film for you.

 

Tom Hiddleston is terrific as always, and Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska is perfectly fine as well. In fact, despite struggling with an English accent, Jessica Chastain gives her best-ever performance too. I normally find her a cold fish, so this role is pretty close to perfect for her. Veteran TV character actor Jim Beaver fares well as Wasikowska’s father, too.

 

A good film with wonderful visual style that could’ve been even better if it weren’t a little too reverent. No one can doubt that Guillermo del Toro is a helluva talent, though, and if you like Gothic romantic horror/thrillers you should enjoy this one.

 

Rating: B-