Like his contemporaries Peter
Jackson and J.J. Abrams, fan-favorite Guillermo del Toro (‘The Devil’s
Backbone,’ ‘Blade 2,’ ‘Hellboy,’ ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and ‘Pacific Rim’) has
established himself as one of the most geektastic filmmakers of our time. Interestingly enough, the Guadalajara native’s
latest feature combined his trademark visual style and panache with the sense
and sensibilities of a Jane Austen novel.
An engrossing tale of gothic horror with romance at its heart, ‘Crimson
Peak’ may be del Toro’s best since ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ from a storytelling
standpoint.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged
that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." The wife in this instance is Edith (Mia
Wasikowska), a headstrong young woman and aspiring novelist from Buffalo, New
York at the turn of the 20th Century who’s smitten by the rather
charming Mr. Darcy, by which I mean Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), a
baronet from England who may lack "possession of a good fortune" but certainly
not pride and ambition. Against her
wealthy industrialist father’s wishes before his untimely demise, she marries
Sir Thomas and moves to the forbidding and run-down mansion he shares with his enchanting
but mysterious sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain), realizing too late that
she’s residing at the very place the ghastly apparitions of her childhood warned her to
beware of, a place called ‘Crimson Peak.’
‘Crimson Peak’ is a story of
elaborate schemes and tragic romance, but it is also a creepy, unsettling and deeply atmospheric
gothic chiller. Del Toro is a master at
building slow-burning suspense, imbuing the movie with a pervasive sense of
dread and impending doom. While the
climactic ending seems a bit rushed, it really can’t be helped once the “cat
is out of the bag.” Del Toro also
deserves much credit for not toning the movie down to a more commercially viable
PG-13 rating, as there are some disturbing images and scenes which made even a
jaded horror fan like me cringe.
Grade: A
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