A young woman is swept off her feet by a charming Asgardian Englishman who whisks her away to his crumbling estate in England where a supernatural mystery begins to unfurl.
Crimson Peak is like an old-fashioned ghost story and, to be honest, the world needs good old-fashioned ghost stories. Nowadays, filmmakers are always trying to do something new and edgy and original when there’s something to be said for the traditional… a bleak setting, a dark house, spooks coming down the hallways. How sad is it that traditional has become nontraditional and movies like Crimson Peak and The Woman In Black are the anomalies when they should be the rule?
Now, mind you, I’m not saying that this is a great movie or even that good. I’m saying that it’s far from engaging with a story that’s supposed to be shocking but we’ve already seen in a certain HBO television show, there is something quietly endearing about the whole thing. There’s an element of fear bottled from your childhood sprinkled about in the setting and it’s wonderful.
Mostly, it’s the presentation. The sets are so wonderfully envisioned and created and the visuals are the usual excellence that Guillermo Del Torro provides…. even the ghosts are spectacular looking and I often deride modern day ghosts for being CGI abominations. Here, they’re ethereal and actually scary looking.
The Mansion itself, where most of the movie takes place, is drenched in atmosphere. It’s rotting away and falling apart and yet, holds beauty in its walls. Some of the decay even adds to its beauty… where else can you have snow in the grand foyer?
The story honestly doesn’t do this gorgeous movie any favors. It’s silly and simplistic and seems out of place in the beauty of the setting.
Still, I dug the atmosphere and I dug the setting so that’s something. The plot is a little disappointing and probably won’t have that many people returning for a second look, but I fully recommend a first look nonetheless.
Jason Gaston 