Crimson Peak - Review (7/10)

Guillermo del Toro is back with another fantasy horror. Now a lot of movie-goers are complaining that this was not what they were promised, which was an outright horror movie. But I don't know what all the fuss is about because, coming from del Toro, this is exactly what I thought I was going to get.

I believe why people are complaining is because they were not enough of those loud, thumping scares that make audiences jump out of their seats. But for someone like me who do not appreciate mindless scares - scares just for the sake of scaring, I liked Crimson Peak the way it is.

The Allerdale Hall created by del Toro again boasted a great set that combined beauty and spookiness. I don't know how anyone could survive a day in that house, let alone live there. But each room and hall created by del Toro had character, history, and looked majestic.

Apart from the set pieces, what really caught my attention was the intensity in the performances of Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain. Especially when Hiddleston first walked in, when his character required to be charming, we saw again that devilish Loki charm that we all fell in love.

And that one scene when Chastain went into a rage, even I felt afraid sitting in my seat.

Another great performance came from Jim Beaver, who impressed me with the delivery of those lines which didn't sound easy. But he did it with composure and never over acted his part.

However, with such a story, there were a lot of questions you could ask starting with "why". And a lot of times we'll never come up with good enough an answer to justify what we saw onscreen. Like when Mia Wasikowska's character could see ghosts, why only her mother's ghost and no one else? And there were plenty of opportunities for others too.

Also, Wasikowska's character has never properly evolve. She started off as a writer and we never saw any mention of that again. The first half of the movie for her character was very different from the second half.

Same thing with Charlie Hunnam's character, who started off as a doctor then became a detective.

But as a story as a whole, I really enjoyed it and felt it's a very consistently pleasing del Toro creation that did not use cheap scares but rather the suspense to keep us on the edge of our seats.