Movie Review: Crimson Peak

The horror genre knows no bounds.  It also seems to not know how to bring something original or new to the audience.  Crimson Peak, while visually wonderful, is lacking in any compelling characters or premise in the least.  The movie centres around a girl who has once seen the dead.  That one experience spurs her to be a writer, though she doesn’t seem to flourish at this either.  A man visits her father to look for funding for a project and the two, of course, are drawn to one another.  It isn’t long into the movie where one can predict exactly what’s going to happen.

The best thing I can say about this movie is that it is visually stunning.  There is nothing that happens that really has the viewer jump.  I will fully admit the gore was a little over the top and I covered my eyes not to see certain parts, not because I was scared, but because it was just disgusting.  There’s a great article I stumbled across that really summarises the shortcomings.  There are so many, it is hard to choose just one.

If you’re a long-time reader of this blog, you may have noticed how I have started to focus in on specific things and if a movie is lacking, I can’t help but notice it.  I realise this was a period piece, but the only people who were not white were the help.  I don’t presume that the director/writer could force that in, but much like Jurassic Park, the lack of substantive roles for minorities was very apparent.  On that same note, the two female leads were typical.  The one girl, young and naïve, the other, cold and manipulating, and what was at the centre of their quarrel?  A man, of course.  Yeah, this could not have been more insufferable.  The only way the naïve girl could be saved is if a strong, strapping man came in to save her.  Thank goodness Charlie Hunan was there to do that.  From this perspective, there is little to induce a person to see this movie.  I expected more from Guillermo del Toro.  Many of his other movies are well balanced that this one stands out in stark contrast.