A.C.’s Review: Director
Guierllmo Del Tora is a fairly
acclaimed director in Hollywood
however I have only seen one of his films PACIFIC RIM…a CGI orgy of giant
robots fighting giant creatures emerging from an interdimensional crack under
the sea floor. Not exactly a great movie. Now along comes CRIMSON PEAK which is
said to be a passion project he has wanted to make for some time.
The
story follows early 20th century would be author Edith, a lovely young woman who besides
a gift for writing is also sensitive to the paranormal and can see denizens of
the spirit world on occasion. Living with her widowed father in Buffalo, NY her life changes when an English
Baron Thomas Sharpe (played by Avengers’
Loki himself Tom Hiddleston) and his
sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) appear trying to solicit her
father as an investor for their clay mining operation back in England. The father does not like the Sharpes and has them investigated
especially since Thomas is romancing Edith. Before long he uncovers something
unsavory in their past and pays them off to leave town. On the eve of their
departure he is brutally murdered. Three guesses as to who the killer is.
With
nothing to tie her to Buffalo…not
even her childhood friend and wood be suitor-a doctor played by Charlie Human (from PACIFIC RIM and best known as Jax Teller on SONS OF
ANARCHY) she marries Thomas and
returns to England with him. Arriving
at the Sharpe’s decaying ancestral
home Arendalle Hall…Edith quickly
comes to realize things are not as they seem and her very life may be in
jeopardy…especially when she discovers the Arendalle
Hall is also known as Crimson Peak which she was warned many years ago to beware of by her
deceased mother appearing in spectral form.
I don’t
want to give anymore away. This film was a major surprise for me. I was not
enthused to see it because it looked in the previews like it was trying way too
hard to be stylish (which was a major problem with THE WALK) but I went anyway
and was delighted that it was an excellent film. All the characters were (no
pun intended) sharply drawn and I was completely invested in them for the whole
movie…anxious to see how it would turn out. Anyone going to see this expecting
to see a slasher style bloodbath horror movie will be disappointed. I would
label this more a supernatural thriller than a horror movie. Remove color and
computer generated special effects and this could easily have been the kind of
film they made seventy years ago…it had a charming quaintness to it.
Sadly
it failed spectacularly at the box office on its opening weekend so it won’t be
around the multiplexes for long. Everyone should see it now while they can.
Best Scene: Not really a scene
but more like a segment. Edith’s
arrival at Arrendalle Hall (Crimson Peak) as she
starts to see what a bizarre world she has traded her old life for. The
production design on the house is very atmospheric and creepy.
A.C.’s Rating: FULL PRICE
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