Review: Crimson Peak

Cinema: Crimson Peak (2015)

Guillermo del Toro is a name that movie fans and more so, horror fans, will know very well as the goblin king of gothic horror. I’ve been a huge fan of his work since Cronos changed the vampire mythos back in 1993 and ever since then he has made some stunning fantasy and horror films. His latest is Crimson Peak.

Crimson Peak weaves the tale of a shadowy brother and sister ‘Thomas & Lucille Sharpe’; played by the rakish Tom Hiddleston and the beautifully cold Jessica Chastain, who lure the daughter of a wealthy American businessman to their crumbling English mansion where all kinds of spindly ghouls haunt the rooms of the house and slowly a story of murder and betrayal unravels. Mia Wasikowska plays ‘Edith Cushing’, the said daughter, who has a knack of seeing ghosts, and anymore plot than that is spoiling the treats in store.

The stars of this film are quite clearly the set designers and Del Toro’s imagination. The ghosts specifically…there are no floating white sheet’s here, these are ‘Del Toro’ ghosts, played by ACTORS IN SUITS!!!! A light dusting of CGI to make them as terrifying as possible, they obviously suffered violent deaths and these are hands down the best ghosts I’ve seen in cinema since Ghostbusters. They shudder around in the shadows and creep behind slightly open doors. Awesome stuff. The violence is here too and one specific scene is brutal enough to warrant this an 18 certificate but somehow it manages only a 15!

The whole composition is a thing or intricate beauty.  Nobody else makes films like this that look and feel so otherworldly. From his masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth to the hugely underrated Blade 2, the attention to detail is what puts his films in a category of their own. Crimson Peak is a gothic masterpiece that stands proudly alongside Guillermo del Toro’s best work. Catch it now in IMAX for some real ‘in your face’, spooky fun.

Review by Ramrod (co-host of 60 Minutes With)