CRIMSON PEAK (2015) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

crimson peak (2015) movie

Genre             |  Fantasy Horror

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   119 minutes

Released         |   16 October 2015

cast

Mia Wasikowska ... Edith Cushing
Jessica Chastain ... Lucille Sharpe
Tom Hiddleston ... Thomas Sharpe
Charlie Hunnam ... Dr. Alan McMichael
Jim Beaver ... Carter Cushing
Burn Gorman ... Holly
Leslie Hope ... Mrs. McMichael
​Doug Jones ... Edith's Mother / Lady Sharpe

director

​Guillermo del Toro

writer

​Guillermo del Toro ... (written by) &
Matthew Robbins ... (written by)

cinematographer

​Dan Laustsen

music

​Fernando Velázquez

film editor

Bernat Vilaplana

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​74,679,822  

Australia                 $​​​​1,395,175

North America       $​​31,090,320

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the best dialogue

Edith Cushing: Ghosts are real, this much I know. There are things that tie them to a place, very much like they do to us. Some remain tethered to a patch of land, a time and date, the spilling of blood, a terrible crime... There are others, others that hold onto an emotion, a drive, loss, revenge, or love. Those, they never go away.

Thomas Sharpe: I cannot leave you here. In fact, I find myself thinking about you even at the most inopportune moments of the day. I feel as if a link exists between your heart and mine, and should that link be broken, either by distance or by time, then my heart would cease to beat and I would die.

Thomas Sharpe: You insist on describing the torments of love when you clearly know NOTHING about them. I'M NOT DONE YET! What do you dream of? A kind man? A pure soul to be redeemed? Perfection? Perfection has no place in love, Edith. I advise you to return to your ghosts and fancies, the sooner the better. You know precious little about the human heart or love or the pain that comes with. You are nothing but a SPOILED CHILD!

CRIMSON PEAK (2015) MOVIE IMAGES

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CRIMSON PEAK (2015) STORY SYNOPSIS

​After marrying the charming and seductive Sir Thomas Sharpe, young Edith (Mia Wasikowska) finds herself swept away to his remote gothic mansion in the English hills. Also living there is Lady Lucille, Thomas' alluring sister and protector of her family's dark secrets. Able to communicate with the dead, Edith tries to decipher the mystery behind the ghostly visions that haunt her new home. As she comes closer to the truth, Edith may learn that true monsters are made of flesh and blood.

CRIMSON PEAK (2015) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 15 October 2015
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

CRIMSON PEAK is the cinematic equivalent of the Magic Box. Everyone wants to know what’s inside, but, upon pulling off the wrapping, the contents are not exactly what the recipient may have been expecting. Guillermo del Toro’s CRIMSON PEAK, a love letter to Gothic romance, horror and suspense movies of a by-gone era, works earnestly to draw the viewer into the circumstance of its characters but misses the opportunity to truly turn viewer expectation upon its head and throw convention out the window. Instead, the Mexican maestro del Toro and Co-screenwriter Matthew Robbins play it safe with the story and allow their beautiful (but never really fleshed-out) characters to act out their Gordian knot in a fairly predictable manner.

CRIMSON PEAK starts with a prologue about young Edith Cushing, who has the ability to see ghosts and is given a warning by her recently-deceased Mother to “beware of Crimson Peak”. The grown-up Edith (Mia Wasikowksa) tells the viewer that “Ghosts are real”, but, as an aspiring ghost story writer, she goes to great pains to tell anyone who’ll listen that her latest work is not a Ghost story, but a story that has a Ghost in it. Despite her progressive views on a woman’s place in late 19th century America, Edith naively lets herself be charmed by Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), a visiting English aristocrat in search of funding for his family’s mining company. Edith’s father Carter (Jim Beaver) is suspicious of Sharpe and his intentions. Carter employs a private detective (del Toro favourite Burn Gorman) to uncover the truth about Sharpe and, upon learning his secrets, confronts the Englishman, demanding that he and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) leave town on the first train in the morning. Events soon turn decidedly gruesome and poor Edith flees to the remote countryside of England with her new husband Thomas in search of a fresh start.

The point at which Edith and Thomas return to his childhood home, a vast dilapidated mansion in a remote part of the English countryside, is where the viewer might expect CRIMSON PEAK to pick up the pace a little bit and start to throw in some jump scares to get the pulse racing. After all, everything to this point is leading up to Edith being trapped in a haunted house isn’t it? Not quite… Instead, del Toro chooses to work against viewer expectation and create a mystery that needs young Edith to solve it; lacing the story with dashes of Gothic romance. The narrative choice made by del Toro is one that will surprise viewers who may be expecting an out-and-out horror film, but it allows the Director to create a wonderful tension between his three main characters; especially Edith and Lucille.

The two female leads in Wasikowska and Chastain are excellent. Wasikowska, whose Edith seems to make some peculiar life decisions (irrespective of her earlier views), provides an element of fragility in her performance that always seems to bubble away just under the surface of her otherwise determined young woman. Chastain, on the other hand, delivers a slow-burner with Lucille, whose mask of civility and reservation slowly slips as more details about her and her brother’s true situation are revealed. The male leads in Hiddleston and Charlie Hunnam (as Dr. Alan McMichael) aren’t as strong, with Hunnam struggling to find an appropriate accent and appearing a little out of his depth among performers like Hiddleston and Chastain. As for Hiddleston, he proves with Thomas Sharpe that he is capable of dialing-down his acting outside of his forays into the Marvel universe and delivers a solid turn as the inventor-aristocrat determined to maintain his family’s legacy at all costs. Special mention must be made of DEADWOOD and SUPERNATURAL alumni Jim Beaver, whose Carter Cushing demonstrates a special talent of being able to provide a complete character assassination without making it personal or raising his voice!

Technically, CRIMSON PEAK is a mixed bag. Thomas Sanders, who is working on the upcoming STAR TREK BEYOND and previously on SAVING PRIVATE RYAN & MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II, handled production design on the project and the sets, the props and the costumes are all first-rate and help to sell the film’s look as a period Gothic story. Jeffrey Melvin and Shane Vieau were in charge of set decoration and their efforts, especially with the Sharpe’s family mansion of Allerdale Hall, hold up extremely well whenever del Toro gets his camera in close. Dan Laustsen is credited as Cinematographer, but his and del Toro’s combined efforts with their shots are a little underwhelming. CRIMSON PEAK appears too clear and crisp for its own good and lacks the inherent murkiness in its images that using film stock (as opposed to digital) would have provided. Combined with some rather unconvincing visual effects, the horror elements don’t really work on any level. For viewers looking for an element of blood-lust, the physical injuries the four leads inflict upon one another during the film’s climax may satisfy but will have most viewers wincing in response.

​Guillermo del Toro’s CRIMSON PEAK is different without being unique. The decision to set the film in the late 19th century works in its favour, as the Gothic trappings help to layer the film’s look and create a unique visual offering for viewers. Of the performances, it is Jessica Chastain’s Lucille who comes away the clear winner, captivating the viewer throughout as it becomes clear that it’s not just the ghosts of Allerdale Hall that visitors need to be afraid of. For viewers who hoped that del Toro would deliver a genuine horror film, there will be disappointment. There’s no jump scares and the gore is kept to a relative minimum. In the absence of these elements, all that is left is a beautiful-looking film with characters who never really engage with each other. CRIMSON PEAK is one Magic Box that is definitely lacking in surprises.

CRIMSON PEAK (2015) USEFUL LINKS

Crimson Peak - Wikipedia
​Crimson Peak (2015) - IMDb
​Crimson Peak (2015) - Rotten Tomatoes

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