Crimson Peak Movie Review

Crimson Peak (2015)

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Written by: Guillermo del Toro & Matthew Robbins
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
In this period piece, an author, Edith moves in with her new husband Tom and his sister Lucille. The house may be haunted, or full of killers, or both.

Verdict
Despite the elaborate house that serves as the set and the exquisite costumes, it's a run of the mill horror movie replete with the common tropes found in horror movies. The visuals look great, though a still just can't capture how great the production values are. The acting is solid as you'd expect with this cast, but the CGI ghosts, as they usually do, lack the authenticity to be really unsettling. The last quarter of the movie trips over itself with an ending that lacks originality.
Skip it.

Review
Having just watched Everest (2015), I was surprised to learn this was not a movie about hiking or climbing.
One of my biggest pet peeves in movies is starting with the final scene first and then cutting back to the original. I get it's trying to generate excitement, but it's a cheap move. It's a proclamation that your opening scene isn't exciting enough and you couldn't fix it.
This movie opens with the final scene, though we don't know it yet, jumps back to childhood, and then jumps forward to the proper start.

Less than three minutes we get our first does of nightmare fuel. The ghost mom warns Edith (Mia Wasikowska) about crimson peak, but neither the characters or I know what that is yet. There is also an animation of a book opening, the title being "Crimson Peak". You'll have to stick around to the end to figure that one out.

Crimson Peak - Never poke at anything resembling blood.

The romance between Edith and Tom (Tom Hiddleston) is convenient and contrived. It's not believable at all. One person tells her she's a good writer and she falls in love? A couple of additional scenes could go a long way.
Tom has a secret, and the movie wants us to believe he's a killer. I think it's a fake out.
Tom and Edith marry and move to his home in England. The house is everything a horror movie house should be. The ground is blood red clay. it oozes out of the walls and floors. It even oozes out of the walls that are above the ground which is a gravitational feat.

The lingering question is what is Tom and Lucille's (Jessica Chastain) deal. Tom picked Edith, but for what? Is she a sacrifice to the house? Who would live in this house? That may be the most unbelievable thing in a movie full of unbelievable things. There is a giant hole in the roof! It's snowing inside the house!

As Edith explores her new prison, we get clues that Tom may have been married before. He has, multiple times. The house is called Crimson Peak. The prophecy is coming true. Ghost mom was right. Run Edith!

Tom and Lucille tell Edith she was just dreaming and she buys it. Why?!

If you guessed the tea was poison, you would be right. Lucille is trying to kill her. Lucille is pulling the strings. It's an elaborate scam where the siblings marry Tom off for money so he can mine blood red clay that no one wants to actually purchase. It's a stellar business model.

Edith's doctor friend from back home pieces things together and travels to England to save her. Despite knowing he was dealing with deranged murderers, he thought he could reason with them and walk out the front door with Edith. That doesn't happen.

Logic flies right out of the window towards the end. Tom fell in love for real this time and tries to save Edith, but his sister is crazy. Tom gets stabbed in the face in a scene that is very unsettling and just ghastly. The CGI is impressive though.

That book thing from the beginning that made no sense? The end has the book close, revealing that Edith is the author. It's not clever or cute. It's contrived and ridiculous. In the end the crazy murderers Tom and Lucille die and the stupid victims, Edith and the doctor live.