Guillermo del Toro. Some people love the movies he has directed. Some people don’t love them. I think I am starting to land in the second group. I know he found his early cult following with movies like Hellboy and Hellboy II while also receiving critical accolades for films like The Orphanage and Pan’s Labyrinth. For me, his movies aren’t must-see (I’ve had Pan’s Labyrinth on my list of movies to watch for years, but each time I think I might want to watch it, I put something else on instead). Hellboy and The Orphanage were both okay, but del Toro is no early M Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs). While Crimson Peak has had mostly positive reviews (69% on Rotten Tomatoes), it hasn’t hit home with audiences. Its marketing campaign has hurt its inability to categorize it as humor, mystery, suspense, romance, or drama. This movie attracted del Toro’s best-ever cast ensemble (Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam, Tom Hiddleston). Still, with an estimated budget of $50 million and only half of that amount accumulated in revenue from the first two weekends, Crimson Peak might barely break even. This movie is by no means great. It was an okay watch, but my life certainly would not have been altered if I had not seen it. I absolutely will never watch this movie again. It certainly is not a horror film, so even though the previews look scary and categorized as horror, you’re not going to be scared. If you like del Toro’s other movies, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this one. If you’ve never seen one of his movies before (other than maybe Pacific Rim), I’d suggest watching either The Orphanage or Pan’s Labyrinth at home and base your decision on your fondness of either of those movies.

As mentioned, del Toro has never had a cast to work with like this one. Highlighted by the supporting performances of multiple Academy Award-nominated actress Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty) as well as F/X’s Sons of Anarchy lead actor Charlie Hunnam, this movie is as much a mysterious love story between an aspiring novelist named Edith (Mia Wasikowska – Alice in Wonderland, Albert Nobbs) and a hopeful inventor of a model clay harvester named Thomas (Tom Hiddleston – Thor, Midnight in Paris). He is hoping to secure money to develop a full version of his model.

The movie begins with Edith saying that she believes in ghosts. In a flashback, we see a young ghost visiting her when she was a girl. Like in many movies, the ghost is scary, visits her at night, and warns her. We then return to the present time, which is 1901 Buffalo, NY. Edith lives with her father (Carter | Jim Beaver – HBO’s Deadwood, television’s Days of Our Lives). They are a well-to-do family, rich enough to have servants and maids. Edith doesn’t want to live off of her father’s money, though. She has dreams of her own. These include becoming a writer. She wants to write horror stories, but she is told she should make them love stories. Unfortunately, Edith cannot write love stories because she has never been in love before. Enter Thomas, who is visiting from London with hopes of getting money for his clay harvest invention. Thomas had his funding previously denied in London, Edinburgh, and Milan. Carter makes quick work of the young man, telling him no as soon as he hears that Thomas doesn’t have an actual working version of his invention but instead just this little toy.

However, rather than simply going on his way, Thomas strikes up a conversation with Edith, telling her that he likes her novel. Soon Edith is smitten by Thomas even though it is evident that Dr. Alan Michael (Hunnam) is smitten with her. We get a love triangle that is further complicated by Thomas’s sister Lucille (Chastain). Carter sees that his daughter is falling for Thomas and wants to learn more about his stranger and sister. So he hires a private investigator to do some background checking and learns a couple of facts that he finds troubling. I won’t get into these for fear of ruining the story. However, the story shifts to London, where Edith, Thomas, and Lucille share a massive house. Interestingly, they can afford such a house since neither of them has ever had a job. Thomas is a baronet. A baronet, as explained, is someone who doesn’t work for money but simply lives off the land that workers cultivate. There is plenty of clay on this land. Thomas needs a better way to harvest it.

It sort of goes without saying that this massive mansion is haunted by a ghost(s). It is stated in the first scene of the movie. Edith is visited by these ghosts who tell her some exciting things that Thomas and Lucille reject. Though married, Edith and Thomas seem to continue to fall deeper and deeper in love. This is something that Lucille disapproves of. Why? Something doesn’t quite up, though. As stated, this movie is pretty darn predictable. The above-average acting makes this movie better than it would otherwise be. I don’t think you’re going to be tricked by anything, but if you are, read a little about it online afterward, and it’ll all make perfect sense. You might have said, “Oh…that’s it?”. It’s not a bad movie. It’s just predictable. Sure there’s a tiny little twist that isn’t even really a twist if you are paying attention. The special effects are pretty cool. The ghosts aren’t super creepy, but they do feel like ghosts. And the old-fashioned, Gothic type feel to the movie feels pretty cool too.

By the end of this movie, I will say that I was ready for it to be over. Heck, after 40 minutes or so, I was prepared for it to be over. But has methodical and predictable as it was; it never felt slow or boring. It just had a “been there, done that” type of feel to it that made me wonder, if nothing else, why I was seeing it in the theater. This movie, at best, is one you’d watch at home on your big screen in the dark. It was no wonder why there were only two other people in the theater. Crimson Peak was not a bad movie. It just wasn’t a great one. As mentioned, before shelling out your money, check out either Pan’s Labyrinth or The Orphanage first. Both of these movies are probably better, and you can see if you like del Toro’s style.

On a side note, it was interesting to see Hunnam in the role of a good guy. I saw him in the movie The Ledge, but that was before I knew who he was. So my only real experience with his acting was with his role as Jax Tyler on Sons of Anarchy. I suffered with this show for seven seasons (while I binge-watched all seven seasons over the summer). The show was well-acted, but I could not relate to it at all. This show was more like a train wreck from which I couldn’t turn away. I joked around with one of my friends who also binged watch over the summer whether there were any redeemable characters on the show. I could think of one over seven years (not that this character necessarily started in season one and lasted until season 7). That person was not Jax Tyler. He was a guy who you wanted to like and who you gave opportunity after opportunity to try to redeem himself until finally, you got to the point where you realized he was a complete jerk and that he was not a person for who you could care. It’s a challenging show to watch, and I don’t know why I did. I guess I watched it because I remember it being super popular when it was on the air, and I wanted to see what the hype was all about. I could see an audience for it…I just wasn’t part of that group.

Plot 7.5/10
Character Development 7/10
Character Chemistry 7/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 7.5/10
Directing 7/10
Cinematography 9.5/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10
Universal Relevance 8.5/10
77.5%

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