Crimson Peak (2015)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Don't Believe the Hype

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

My judgement is purely based on the screenplay I read not the movie itself. But what I have read from the movie synopsis it seems they somewhat deviated from the story while making it. The story starts beautifully - interesting female protagonist, Edith, her father - self-made businessman, Boston society. Then it gets confusing with each turn as Edith who is a clever, educated and aspiring, suddenly becomes somewhat dumb and starry eyed and falls for the antagonist too easily - Mr. Sharp. Then her father turns into an antagonist too... Being a woman several scenes stood out as not quite true or believable - one is when Mr. Sharp comes to Edith at night asking her to join him to the Ball, when couple of hours before she refused to go there with her father. From being in her pyjamas and writing away her book she suddenly transported to the Ball, all beautifully dressed and stuns everyone with her dance... In real life try to get a woman out of her pyjamas and into the Ball... Good luck, I would say, as women need lots of time to prepare. I also found it not very believable when her father would not show her the papers that he discovered about Mr. Sharp but instead keeps it secret and pays Sharp to leave and also break her heart too. Not quite the character that was portrayed in the beginning of the story. Personally, I think there was no need for any ghosts at all, as Edith discovers the truth by finding clothes and albums of previous women who stayed at the castle and were murdered, so she is able to understand what has happened and will happen to her. Doctor suddenly becoming alive in the basement also is unrealistic and does not serve any purpose... The end is also very confusing - Edith gets out saying she decided to live but she never gave an impression of a person who did not want to live... I believe it could have been such a wonderful story but somehow it was lost to maybe 'too many cooks' and a wish to make a horror movie out of it. What a pity.

Pan's Labyrinth made sense because the underlying motif was the Spanish Civil War and the horrors of the war allowed the nightmare imagery. This on the contrary is just a petit guignol gothic melodrama. While it shows that Hiddleston is suited to the saturnine and cadaverous, Jessica Chastain's role as the evil sister is thoroughly overplayed. But the red skeletons that keep appearing do nothing but make you laugh - they are too shiny and synthetic and ther movements comic in their efforts to scare. What a waste of Dle Toro's imagination - maybe he needs the money - yet he put his name to the script. And what on earth is the red liquid underground clay that they pump out - there's not enough story to suggest it's a metaphor for anything - and I've never heard of red sludge there for the digging. You can't introduce too many random fantasy elements or it fails to dispel the disbelief. There were also elements that were foregrounded to have a significance but then never did - the clay machine, the dog, the red vat of gunk, the faithful retainer. Three stars is over generous.

When I saw that another Guillermo del Toro film was being released, I thought, well, with what this director likes me. Although to tell the truth, the first movie of his that I saw was El laberinto del fauno, marvelous, then I saw the rest of his filmography and the disappointment was enormous. With this continues the disappointment. I do not know how he did it in the other but he does not look like anything in any of his other films. But now it's time to talk about The Scarlet Summit.I can not help but be watching the movie and thinking, did you really not know how to do it better?All effects take me out of the movie.The actors, it seems that they knew they were doing popcorn movies and they said, to make an effort.Photography is fine, but it's the only thingThe address, I do not know why he does not know how to put the camera where he should. He does not narrate with her.The story is more than bony view that nothing new. I imagine that it will have had a magnificent production and I think they set up a scenario simulating the mansion, but they would leave it all there. In short, a disappointment, boring and badly carried.

Completely predictable plot, overripe visually, excessively bloody, and a waste of some good actors and a director who is capable of much more (Pan's Labyrinth, for example)