Crimson Peak Review (Universal Pictures – 2015)

As a young girl Edith (Mia Wasikowska) is haunted by the black wraith of her late mother with the ominous warning “Beware of Crimson Peak”.

It will only be until she grows older when she will truly understand the meaning behind those words and by then it may just be a little too late.

With this creepy opening sequence, you know there is more to Crimson Peak than meets the eye, with a deep dark secret which you are all too curious to uncover. But will you uncover it before the film ends?

Edith grows to become someone less than ordinary, with her belief in ghosts it causes her to be an outcast in the town she lives in.

As she aspires to become a writer, she struggles to find her place as her stories are dark and unusual. With victorian sensibilities dictating what she can and can’t do, it is deemed improper for a woman to be writing about such things other than your classic love story.

It is no surprise when she captures the attention of Thomas (Tom Hiddleston), an English aristocrat and inventor seeking financial backing for his business back home. After tragedy strikes, Thomas marries Edith and brings her back home where his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) is waiting.

Lucille immediately comes across cold and mysterious, her piercing glare and overall dislike for the other characters really cause a sense of unease and you know something wicked is coming.

This film promised great things by having Guillermo del Toro behind the scenes with his dark fantasy styled films, bringing to mind his gothic horror masterpiece in 2006, Pan’s Labyrinth.

However, Crimson Peak does not come near the quality of Pan’s Labyrinth in terms of script, it does still showcase his brilliant skills in capturing visual beauty in a way that is rather poetic.

The rich colours, textures of backdrop and costume with intricate detailing makes it evident that the main focus was on the production and costume design. It captures the essence of the Victorian era beautifully, helping to draw the viewers into this world.

Every little detail doesn’t go unnoticed, like with the protagonist’s robe that thumps behind her as she glides down the staircase, reminding us of what we imagined while reading a fairy tale.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the storyline as the plot is very straightforward causing the story to unfold in a very predictable fashion,  you can pretty much tell what is going to happen early on in the film, predicting their movements long before its time. While the protagonist is displayed as very intelligent but yet so naive at the same time made it hard to connect and care for her.

The trailer shows us a very suspenseful horror that looks like it’s full of thrills but I must say I found this to be  more of a Gothic romance.

So I was visually excited and drawn to this film but overall I didn’t love it but didn’t hate it either, to be honest I had quite high hopes for Crimson Peak but feel like it fell short and it did not meet expectations.