By Tristan Bishop
I think it’s fair to say that Crimson Peak is one of the most eagerly awaited horror films this year – Guillermo Del Toro’s first venture into darker territory since 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth was bound to get people excited. Those of us who were left dismayed by the cancellation of his HP Lovecraft adaptation (not to mention his Silent Hills videogame project) now finally had something to look forward to. And then that trailer hit – it looked stunning and scary, a throwback to Hammer horror, but with no expense seemingly spared. A few days ago, however, Del Toro tweeted “One last time before release. Crimson Peak: not a horror film. A Gothic Romance. Creepy, tense, but full of emotion”. A number of us horror fans were slightly miffed by his choice of words, echoing the cultural snobbery that has plagued our genre for hundreds of years. There’s not space here to list the directors who have tried to distance themselves from the term ‘horror’, but the reaction of ‘oh, I don’t make horror films! I make fairy tales/terror films/thrillers’ is one we’ve all come across countless times – often from directors who have made great horror films. So was Del Toro right? Well, partially.
Gothic romance is actually a very good way to describe the plot of Crimson Peak – which pretty much spells out all its aims early on. The excellent Mia Wasikowska takes the lead role as Edith Cushing, a young woman who is trying to get her stories published. However she is constantly turned down as publishers see her stories as ghost stories – a genre not considered fitting for a lady. She disagrees of course, claiming that ‘the ghosts are just metaphors for the past’ – and during one exchange, claims she would rather be Mary Shelley than Jane Austen. Del Toro is spelling out the films DNA for us here – Hammer, Shelley & Austen – add the visual style of Mario Bava (with the volume turned up to 11) and take a huge dollop of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and here we are!
Of course, any gothic romance needs a gothic romantic interest – so enter everyone’s favourite Marvel villain, Tom Hiddleston as Sir Thomas Sharpe, who is trying to secure funding from Cushing’s rich father (Jim Beaver) in order to build a mining device to extract ‘scarlet clay’ from his British mine. Sharpe, along with his mysterious sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) seem to plot amongst themselves to have Edith fall for Sharpe, and, despite her father’s best efforts (he has a hunch that the Sharpes are not to be trusted), she does. Daddy Cushing soon befalls a mysterious death – his head is repeatedly smashed against a wash basin by an unseen figure, which apparently is taken to be an accident, and Edith and Thomas are soon married, and the film shifts to England, as Thomas takes her back to his home in Cumberland (which actually was once a county – it’s now part of Cumbria, fact fans), and the remote, sprawling but run-down mansion of Allerdale – a place where the roof has caved in, black moths flitter through the corridors, whole sections of the house are off limits, and red clay ooze seeps up through the floorboards in a ridiculous (but admittedly powerful) visual metaphor.
Of course daddy’s father’s hunch was right, and the Sharpes are up to no good – If you have even a vague knowledge of gothic horror you’ll spot most of the plot reveals pretty early on, but that’s not really the point here. As with the 60’s Italian gothics in which Barbara Steele would inevitably play two roles, it’s all about the sumptuous visuals and elegance, and Crimson Peak pretty much constantly delivers on this front. No lie – this is probably one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Cinematography, set design and costumes work together to create an eye-searing marvel – indeed, the foyer of Allerdale will no doubt be seen as a classic location in years to come, and those with a penchant for costume drama will be drooling over Edith’s dresses. Equally drool-inducing are the leads. Hiddleston is perfectly cast here; although Cushing is the name of Wasikowska’s character, it’s Hiddleston who appears, with his upper-class elegance and razor sharp cheekbones to be taking the mantle from the great Hammer namesake. Wasikowska (who is pretty much great in anything) plays strong yet innocent to perfection, and Chastain nearly walks away with the film as what amounts to a sexier version of Mrs Danvers.
Genre buffs will have some fun spotting references too, from the literary allusions to several visual nods to Bava and his ilk (black gloves, red balls, a real red-herring straight razor), yet the film will be accessible to those who have never really dabbled in the gothic before – In fact, the less you know of the tropes, the more effective the film will be.
The one sour point for me was the use of the ghosts in the film. As beautifully designed and animated as they are, they feel secondary to the main plot; in fact, aside from one unforgivably silly moment at the climax, Edith’s early assertion about metaphor rings true here – she is the only character who sees the supernatural creatures, after all. Personally I found that these moments weren’t necessary and made the tone uneven, even overly sentimental at times. Without the ghosts, Del Toro’s insistence that the film is not a horror film would be spot on, so it’s a shame that he felt the need to include them at all.
This niggle aside, there is an awful lot to enjoy with Crimson Peak – and it’s great to see such an old-fashioned story given the Hollywood big-screen treatment. Indeed one hopes this might be the mega-hit that Del Toro has been searching for so he can finally get some of his pet projects off the ground – it certainly has popular appeal and, frankly, purely as eye-candy it’s a phenomenal prospect. Just make sure you catch it on the biggest screen possible.
Crimson Peak is in cinemas from Friday 16th October.