Crimson Peak | WIRED Movie Review

(pipes knocking)

[Narrator] Crimson Peak has ghosts,

but it's not a horror movie.

As director Guillermo del Toro will tell you,

it's a gothic romance.

But while it's quite gothic,

it's not very romantic.

It tries to be erotic.

It's pretty feminist.

It might be a comedy.

[Man] The wood is rotting,

and the house is sinking.

[Narrator] Wait, let's back up.

Would you be mine?

[Narrator] Set at the turn of the last century,

del Toro's latest movie centers

on a young author name Edith Cushing,

played by Mia Wasikowska.

She falls for a mysterious man,

played by Tom Hiddleston,

with an even more mysterious sister,

played by Jessica Chastain.

We were not allowed in here as children.

[Narrator] They might be the most uninviting

pair of siblings to grace the screen

since The Shining twins.

You had a bad dream?

[Narrator] But since love is blind,

Edith marries into this family,

and goes to live with them

in their haunted mansion in England.

Thomas, your bride is frozen.

[Narrator] This, of course, all goes terribly wrong.

And the more frightened Edith gets,

the more her new family tries to force her to stay.

You have nowhere else to go.

[Narrator] The hauntings get worse,

and Edith's new sister-in-law

gets more and more unhinged.

There are parts of the house that are unsafe.

[Narrator] It does not go well.

Crimson Peak is decidedly weird.

It feels, at times, like a send up of gothic romance,

and also an homage to it.

But here's the thing,

amidst the wait what dialogue,

and trips to the basement that no one would take.

Never go below this level.

[Narrator] Something about this movie is very fun.

Or maybe just funny.

Jessica Chastain, in particular,

is given a lot of really strange material to work with,

and she is selling it.

She has everything.

[Narrator] She should be encouraged to fly

this far off the handle more often.

It's delicious.

You're sleepwalking.

No.

[Narrator] Same goes for del Toro's beautiful costumes,

haunted house, and ghosts.

They're all wonderfully designed,

and meticulously constructed.

They aren't always scary, or horrifying,

but they're not bad to look at.

What was that?

[Narrator] Crimson Peak is not a great movie.

It's also not a bad one,

and with enough cosplay...

[Thomas] Do we have to do this?

[Narrator] It just might become a cult favorite.

Maybe.

Must we? Yes.

(discordant piano music)