The latest film from director and co-writer Guillermo del Toro begins and ends with the image of a book (titled CRIMSON PEAK, shockingly enough) being opened and closed, so audiences immediately have some sense that what they're about to see may have a tinge of the literary at its core. In fact, in an early scene in CRIMSON PEAK, would-be author Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) tell a perspective publisher that her first novel isn't a ghost story, as he has stated, but rather a romance with ghosts in it. I don't think it takes a great detective to figure out that Edith is also talking about the film we're watching, which embraces its Gothic roots while peppering in a ghost or two at very specific moments in the story.
From a script by Del Toro and Matthew Robbins (DRAGONSLAYER, MIMIC, the remake of DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK), CRIMSON PEAK uses ghosts more as messengers from the past warning us of the future or harbingers of dreadful things to come—things that their human selves faced and succumbed to in the past. When Edith was just a girl, she was visited by the horrific spirit of her mother, warning her about an unknown place called Crimson Peak. As an adult, Edith is a fledgling writer living with her protective industrialist father (Jim Beaver), who is visited by English inventor Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) who has created a design for a new mining machine and is looking for investors in America, after failed attempts in other parts of the world. Traveling with his clingy sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain), Thomas crosses paths with Edith, and sparks kick up before long, despite Mr. Cushing's strong reservations about the man.
Edith's longtime friend Dr. Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam, who starred in Del Toro's previous film, PACIFIC RIM) is also wary of the Sharpes but says nothing, not wishing to offend her. Del Toro is clearly borrowing from stories like JANE EYRE or REBECCA for both visual cues and a way of steering the plot, but having Edith be especially sensitive to the spirit world makes her exceedingly interesting. After her father meets an untimely (and rather violent) death, Edith is easy prey for Mr. Sharpe, who sweeps in, overwhelms her with sweet talk and seemingly good intentions, and before long the two are married, and Edith is swept away by the Sharpes to their vast, crumbling, dilapidated manor, where the red clay just beneath the grounds bleeds through everything from the floor boards of the home to the winter snow—the image of blood-red stains forming on freshly fallen snow is fairly alarming and gorgeous.
The massive home is a crumbling, rotting structure with a hole in the roof where leaves, rain and snow come in regularly. A creaky elevator goes from the creepy attic to the secret-keeping lower level, where part of the Sharpe mining operation is housed (apparently the red clay is a fine material for bricks). And before too long, a new set of ghosts start to visit Edith in her sleeping and waking states, giving her clues to the secrets of both the house and its occupants.
CRIMSON PEAK is a film almost dripping with stunning production design, extravagant costumes, and a rich atmosphere, thick with a healthy combination of opulence and decay. The house is rotting in the same way the souls of the Sharpes are, for reasons I won't go into. But it's easy to tell early on that the brother and sister have a great deal of answer for in terms of their ethics and moral compasses. Wasikowska has a perfect blend of naivety and strength, as a woman attempting to break into the world of publishing, but lacking any real life experience to sell a romance as anything close to authentic.
Hiddleston infuses Thomas with just enough heart to make us realize he's a man driven by desperation and not twisted greed, the way his sister is. By the end, it's clear that his affection for Edith is very real, and he attempts in his own way to protect her. Chastain gives the key performance here, drawing heavily from Jane Eyre's Mrs. Fairfax, but creating her own special brand of wickedness without overselling it. She makes Crimson Peak fun, in a sense, by being perfectly deviant and judgmental about Edith marrying her brother.
A case could be made that CRIMSON PEAK is somewhat thin on story, and perhaps compared to other Del Toro films or modern films set in the horror arena; that may be true, but this movie has more modest goals than piling on plot on top of plot. Trust me, there is plenty of history to learn about, as well as newly minted mysteries to uncover and keep viewers' brains working overtime. The film is devastatingly handsome, lovingly created and splendidly acted, making for a fully captivating experience like very few things you've seen in this century.
