Crimson Peak is a movie that I had plans to see in the theater back in 2015, but I fell sick the weekend we were going to see it, and I never worked up the motivation to go to the theaters while it was still running. Then, it eventually came to streaming, but whenever I was in the mood for it, Crimson Peak left the service we had access to. It’s been this little song and dance for nine years in trying to see it. That is, until we finally had the time, motivation, and ability to watch it recently. Was it worth the wait?

Well, if you noticed by the title of this review, I’d put Crimson Peak in the “half-good” category. So, I wouldn’t say it was worth the wait, however, it might still be worth watching, depending on how you look at various qualities of the film.

Plot Summary

Fledgling author and heiress to the Cushing family fortune, Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), has been able to see ghosts ever since she was a child, right after her mother died. Her visions of ghosts and the success of Mary Shelley during this Victorian era have inspired her to become a fiction author focused on ghosts and tragic love. Her father, Carter Cushing (Jim Beaver), humors her better than most American fathers would during this time period—especially considering the fact that he’s trying to set her up with her childhood friend Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam) who has become the local doctor of the region—and he buys her a few gifts to encourage her writing. Most fathers would just marry their daughters off, regardless of their daughters’ desires or goals, but Carter is more understanding than the typical father of that age, I guess.

Edith’s seemingly normal life is interrupted when an English lord named Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) comes to town with his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) in an attempt to find someone willing to fund the assembly and distribution of his design for a mining machine prototype. However, his presence seems to be only well received by Edith, to whom Thomas immediately takes a liking and attempts to court. Timing is not on their side for love, however. Thomas has to return to his manor in England, having failed to get any investors for his prototype, and Carter Cushing just wants him gone as he suspects malintent from the Sharpes. Well—surprise, surprise—Edith’s father dies suddenly, and that’s one obstacle conveniently out of the way. As his only child, Edith inherits his fortune but is alone and desperate to leave the place of her father’s death behind. Carter’s death is treated as an accident by most of the characters, but we, as the audience, are shown otherwise. Even though it’s clear to the audience and to Dr. McMichael that there’s more to the Sharpes than Edith knows, she decides to marry Thomas and accompany him to his manor, where she encounters spooky horrors and ghosts.

Fair: Amazing Sets & Style

Up until Edith travels to the manor, the colorful outfits and lighting of different scenes manage to give the movie a lot of vibrancy. Since this takes place during the Victorian era, all the dresses the women wear are elaborate and extravagant, as well as very colorful. Color is used significantly in this movie and resembles the dynamic contrasts of hues associated with films by Italian horror directors Argento and Baba. While not much happens during the opening act, the color and style of the film pull you in.

The movie’s style really comes to fruition when the Sharpes return to their manor. The dilapidated mansion that rests atop a vast landscape of red clay is a fantastic set that is designed so well that it almost feels like a character itself. It has numerous floors with ornate decoration. The walls are painted with an ugly, moldy green color to contrast with the red mud that is constantly bleeding from its walls. I’d argue that the house itself is what makes Crimson Peak remotely tense because of how it is shot and because of how everything looks within it.

The way the film is shot is often a big part of what makes the house so impactful. The first act in America has Edith often surrounded by other people and is brightly lit, while her time in the manor is isolated and dark. Much of the furniture of the manor was made with two different sizes in mind, so you might have a chair that is identical in its design but much larger than the original. The larger furniture would be used in scenes with Edith because the scale of everything around her would make her seem small and helpless, especially when Lucille is present in the scene. The scenes she shares with Thomas are the most brightly lit, as though her love for him brightens her mood and helps her forget about her troubles.

Foul: Dull & Unsurprising Mystery

Crimson Peak telegraphs its story a little too much. Too much is revealed in the opening act, and there simply aren’t enough characters or details that could lead to red-herring detours to make it any less predictable than it is. The Sharpes are clearly untrustworthy, and their motivations are very quickly revealed the more every character opens their mouth. I’m not trying to inflate my own ego when I say that I predicted the events of this movie well before we got into the second act and predicted the details that would take place later. I could spoil the movie, but I have a feeling that you would be capable of figuring it out for yourself before the third act.

The movie tries to paint certain things as surprises at the end, like who killed Edith’s father and who killed Thomas and Lucilles’ mother, but it’s no surprise. Even the big twist at the end regarding the Sharpes is very unsurprising if you’re paying just a little attention to what is going on. I’m not sure if the audience was expected to be too stupid to follow along or if the big reveals were meant to be genuinely shocking, but nothing about the plot surprised me. I think that had certain edits been made, and if the dialogue was not so overt in some spots, there could have been more of a mystery here, but probably not enough to still make the plot that interesting.

Fair: Suspense & Gruesome Horror

While the overall plot and mystery are very predictable, the direction, sound, and cinematography manage to keep Crimson Peak engaging with how each scene has elements of tension and suspense. The Sharpe manor is a spooky place, even in the rooms that are well-lit. There are some solid scenes in which the sounds of the ghosts roaming the halls and the music really manage to add to the tension of the moment. When the horror does happen, it doesn’t hold back, particularly with the death of Edith’s father. It’s brutal and gory, leaving an impact for the rest of the film. I’d say the ghosts would manage to evoke similar levels of shock and horror if not for one big problem…

Foul: Digital Effects

The ghosts look like sh*t. This is somewhat surprising since they used actors for the ghosts, including Doug Jones, a favorite of Del Toro’s who often plays creepy creatures like the faun and pale man from Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. Their design isn’t bad, it’s all the digital effects that are added on that make them look bad. I think the intention was to make the ghosts appear as their bodies do at that moment, which is why some look more decayed than others, but it would have been way better to just use makeup and keep the digital effects to a minimum. One scene in particular, when the ghost of Thomas and Lucille’s mother shows up, is particularly tense, at least until the ghost shows a laughably goofy bug-eyed face. I wasn’t sure what the movie was trying to do there, but it definitely undercut all the tension and suspense of the scene.

Verdict: Fair

While Crimson Peak is an obvious example of a movie that is more style than substance, I still think it’s worth a watch, if only barely. The plot is painfully predictable. The digital effects make the ghosts look silly and ruin the tension of a scene. The opening act takes its time to the point that the movie feels longer than it is. Still, it’s got some of those great horror qualities of a Guillermo Del Toro film with a lot of vivid style and attention to its themes and characters. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just a bit underwhelming.

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