DIRECTOR: Guillermo del
Toro LEAD CAST: Mia
Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston SCREENWRITER:
Guillermo
del Toro, Matthew Robbins PRODUCER: Jillian Share EDITOR:
Bernat Vilaplana MUSICAL
DIRECTOR: Fernando Velazquez GENRE: Horror CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dan Laustsen DISTRIBUTOR: Universal
Studios LOCATION:
Kingston,
Ontario RUNNING TIME: 1 hr. 59 mins.
Technical
assessment: 4
Moral
assessment: 3
CINEMA
rating: V18
Edith (Mia Wasikowska) is a budding
young novelist amidst a time when women authors do not get much interest from
publishers. Her inspiration would mostly come from her tragic childhood experience
of her mother’s ghost. When baronet Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) visits New
York to seek investment from Edith's father for a technology he invented, Edith
eventually falls in love with him, which
Edith’s father disapproves. His father dies a mysterious tragic death
and Edith marries Thomas and they
move into her husband’s home in England, which he shares with his sister
Lucille (Jessica Chastain). The house, apart from being old and dusty, seems to
be haunted, leading Edith to discover the dark secrets of the Sharpes.
Crimson Peak is a magnificent visual
delight for a horror genre. The set pieces and costumes, the cinematography and
the entire production design all intricately blend to create such a film art
masterpiece. Like a painter creating a delightful still life, the director is
able to use the film as his canvass where all color pallets using mixed media
installations come together to bring about such compelling work of art. The
showcase of Gothic romance is twisted in the terror and apparently dangerous
fate the main character is facing. Jessica Chastain shines as Lucille with her
gripping performance that combines Victorian class and terrifying threat. It’s
rare to see a film that is visually arresting, emotionally moving, and
intellectually challenging. In Crimson Peak, audiences are terrified
and delighted, and fall in love one moment in the film at a time.
Crimson Peak boldly displays both
recklessness and control in terms of conveying its message of horror, deceit,
greed, ambition, obsession, lust, and love. The film centers on Edith being
haunted by the ghosts both from her past and present. The ghost could be a
metaphor of her past hurt from a sudden loss of a loved one, or a present
danger she is about to face. Nevertheless,
the ghost as anchor of the story works very well to deliver the moral of the
story: We are all haunted by our own ghosts. The ghosts could be something we
have kept hidden—however we try to run away from them, they still eventually
lead to our destruction. On the other hand, bravely facing our ghosts no matter
how scary it may be could help us discover painful truths that we need to know.
The film tackles illicit relationships, unresolved crimes, and graphic gory
visuals of violence, yet taken into context and the call of the genre, the film
stands firm and clear that goodness reigns over evil even in the midst of
seemingly stronger dark forces. Ghosts are real, as the film says, but God is
more real—as love is stronger than hate. However, the heaviness of the theme
and the graphic visuals of blood and gore may be disturbing for young audiences
so CINEMA deems the film as suitable only for audience 18 years old and above.
