The movie takes place in the late 1800's. The protagonist is a young girl named Edith, the daughter of a successful American business man. She is an author who's editor insists on her writing romance novels. She insists on writing ghost novels after being visited by the ghost of her mother at a young age. The ghost of her mother foreshadows for us with her single phrase of: "Beware of Crimson Peak." Edith is eventually swept off her feet by a young suitor named Thomas. They get married, and then she moves to Thomas' huge house with him and his sister. And because this is a horror film, once she arrives at his home, he tells her they call this location "Crimson Peak". Edith quickly begins seeing ghosts all over the mansion, and stumbles upon clues as to what is really going on at Crimson Peak. And to avoid spoilers, I will stop here.
This movie is appealing because it isn't like your average horror film, which has it's ups and downs. The positive is that I couldn't predict the entirety of the plot like I could if I went to see another "Paranormal Activity" or any of your other average ghost film. This film might be a direct reflection of people being tired of the "Paranormal Activity" type of movies.
The downside to this movie's uniqueness is that it felt underwhelming in the fear department. Peter Debruge would agree with me in his review stating "Guillermo del Toro creates a visionary haunted house movie with vacancies where scares should be." It almost just felt like a very dark romance movie. It also was somewhat slow moving. The fact that it was slow moving is good and bad. Bad because nobody likes slow moving movies. But good because it had a reason for being slow moving. Unlike some horror movies, "Crimson Peak" actually spent time creating an interesting story line.
"Crimson Peak" had an R rating, making it targeted to adult audiences. The film kind of flopped in the box office. Although critics didn't dislike the film, but instead said it was targeted to a very specific audience; according to Capo Dispatch.
Ultimately, this movie did it's job. It kept me entertained and made me cover my eyes a few times. Unfortunately, it won't stand the test of times. This film is not one that people will be eager to go out and buy on DVD as soon as it is released, because the audience is too specific. The only reason this film will be remembered is because the ghosts in the film were created with beautiful makeup THEN enhanced by CGI. When movies tend to do it the other way around. Here is a link to some of the pictures, not safe for work. And here is a few of the pictures:
Justin,
ReplyDeleteThe movie sounds like it may be worth a watch. The red bodied thing is very creepy. You're probably right about the horror industry, for it does need some new ideas. I like the creepy movies, but "Paranormal Activities" are lame and hopefully they stop making them. Good post, I'm going to check it out when its more available.