When it comes to engrossing, darkly stylised, genre cinema, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro is your guy. This year sees him ready to haunt and disturb audiences with old school horror in Crimson Peak.
Set in the late 19th century, the film finds Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) a young writer with the ability to see ghosts, who, upon marrying Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleson), moves into a crumbling mansion in England with Thomas' sister Lady Lucille (Jessica Chastain), whereupon ghostly entities and dark secrets surface.
This is truly Del Toro's love letter to Gothic and Hammer horror (made blatant by naming his main character after Peter Cushing). The film's star is Del Toro's cinematic vision, with astonishing detailed design put into every frame of the film through costume/production design. It's deliciously theatrical, colourfully bold and atmospheric with creepy scare sequences, and has great visceral beauty and brutality.
It's unfortunate the script isn't as masterful, with clumsy dialogue, loose plot structure and cliched/predictable events ultimately degrading the film. His previous ghostly feature, The Devil's Backbone is the masterpiece this is not.
The solid cast give depth to the heightened proceedings. Wasikowska is beautifully genuine, Hiddleston drifts seamlessly between danger and romance, and Chastain revels in her dark mystique.
Crimson Peak, despite shortcomings, is an entertaining visual powerhouse from Del Toro.
