“Ghosts are real, that much I know. I’ve seen them all my life…“
Guillermo del Toro is no stranger to dark fantasy with his impressive filmography including films such as The Devil’s Backbone (2001), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Blade II (2002) and Hellboy (2004). His latest effort, Crimson Peak (2015), is no exception and is a remarkable gothic horror that tells a ghost story that isn’t really a ghost story; it just has ghosts in it.
Edith Cushing, portrayed by the eloquent Mia Wasikowska, is the daughter of Carter Cushing (Jim Beaver), a wealthy American businessman and an aspiring author. She prefers to write ghost stories rather than romantic tales, which is what her editor is after. Eventually, Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), a mysterious English baronet shows up looking for investors for his clay-mining invention which Carter rejects.
Its opening, set in 1887, demands attention right away with the introduction to a ten year old Edith at her mother’s funeral, shortly followed by the first time she is visited by her mother’s eerie ghost who delivers her a warning: “beware of Crimson Peak.”
Much to everyone’s dismay, Edith and Thomas become smitten and eventually marry and move to England to live in Allerdale Hall, the mansion of Thomas and his cold-hearted sister Lady Lucille, who is portrayed by the charismatic Jessica Chastain. The unnerving mansion sits at the top of a red clay mine.
While this is not a horror film, there are frightful elements of horror mixed in its fantasy. The ghosts, the bugs, the eerie settings and sounds. The film is cinematically beautiful with its extraordinary Victorian sets.
Whilst settling in, Edith finds Lucille cold and begins exploring the house and unlocking its terrifying mysteries as she sees horrific ghosts everwhere. Half way through the film, Thomas announces that Allerdale Hall is sometimes referred to as “Crimson Peak” due to the warm red clay that seeps up through the layers of snow, akin to blood, which alarms Edith as she remembers her late mother’s warning. She begins coughing up blood and feeling weaker and weaker.
del Toro has a magnificent eye for creation, fantasy and gothic horror. The tale of Crimson Peak keeps you on edge as we learn more and more about the old building and the Sharpes’ past. The further you get into the film, the more twists and turns present themself. Afterall, this is not a ghost story. The ghosts are a metaphor for the past.
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