Crimson Peak (2015) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline: Beware

When her heart is stolen by a seductive stranger, a young woman is swept away to a house atop a mountain of blood-red clay - a place filled with secrets that will haunt her forever. Between desire and darkness, between mystery and madness, lies the truth behind Crimson Peak.

From the imagination of director Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) comes a gothic romance masterpiece starring Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska and Charlie Hunnam.

Storyline: Edith Cushing's mother died when she was young but watches over her. Brought up in the Victorian Era she strives to be more than just a woman of marriageable age. She becomes enamored with Thomas Sharpe, a mysterious stranger. After a series of meetings and incidents she marries Thomas and comes to live with him and his sister, Lady Lucille Sharpe, far away from everything she has known. The naive girl soon comes to realize not everything is as it appears as ghosts of the past quite literally come out of the woodwork. This movie is more about mystery and suspense than gore. Written by @Avivafae

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, February 5, 2016 -- Skilled directors are easy to find, but skilled directors who are also cinematic visionaries are significantly more rare. At, or very near, the top of that exclusive collection of today's top filmmakers is Guillermo del Toro, a man whose ability to craft both successful mainstream films like Pacific Rim alongside thematically darker and artistically stylish films like Pan's Labyrinth demonstrate not just versatility, but command of the medium and all of its applications. Crimson Peak is a bit of both mainstream and elegant, heavily favoring the latter -- his more deeply stylish and dramatically complex side shines in this "Gothic Romance"-inspired film -- but also finding a broader commercial appeal as it tells a story of love, murder, mystery, madness, heartache, and otherworldly spirits. Though not as commercially successful as either Pacific or Pan, the film is nevertheless an artistically successful and dramatically absorbing work of art that only disappoints in an uninspired conclusion to an otherwise brilliant film.

Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is an aspiring novelist who is haunted by frightening visions that bear an ominous warning. She's the daughter of a wealthy businessman (Jim Beaver) who is approached by an Englishman named Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) who is seeking investors for his invention that he hopes will facilitate mining red clay. Not only does Sharpe's sales pitch fall on deaf ears, but his budding romance with Edith is cut short when Edith's father digs up his past and blackmails him to break things off with her. Soon thereafter, Edith's father is murdered. With little left of her life, and with Sharpe confessing that her father forced their breakup, the two wed and, with Sharpe's sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) in tow, return to his dilapidated mansion that sits atop the red clay. Edith learns that the place is called "Crimson Peak," the very name that has been haunting her nightmares since her mother's death some years ago.

Crimson Peak is elegantly reminiscent of Bram Stoker's Dracula in both the practical terms of the general timeframe in which the movie takes place and, much more apropos to Del Toro's film, its technical skill and assemblage. This is a film of enormous style that's practically bursting at the seams with a lovingly assembled and gracefully photographed narrative that's enhanced by the use of color, visual metaphor and motif, and striking digital and practical effects. The movie expertly blends artistic grace with unsettling imagery and horrific scares, all of which only serve to enhance one another; no single element dominates another, at least when the movie is considered in its entire context rather than in the inherent beauty of individual shots, scenes, and sequences. The house, which serves as the movie's central location in its second and third acts, represents the proverbial nonliving character. Del Toro has crafted it in a graceful state of disrepair in which it literally "bleeds" from the floor while pure white snow gently drifts down from a hole in the roof and piles inside. But it's the larger context of the story around it that transforms it, and indeed every other piece of the puzzle, from resplendent curiosity to central element in a much more complex story.

While the film exists amongst a rare breed that could successfully stand on its own merely as a visual curiosity, its painstaking technical and production craftsmanship are only enhanced by the foundational support of a solid story. The film is filled with various dramatic twists and turns that are uncovered in due course and which reinforce the reasoning behind the picture's elegant façade. Crimson Peak is akin to multiple organisms living in symbiotic relationship, disparate in many ways but similar in others and always one in need of the other to work. Del Toro never simply tosses ingredients together but instead ensures a carefully conceived story -- which he co-wrote with Matthew Robbins (with whom Del Toro shares a writing credit for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark) -- in which exacting continuity between the broadest story elements and most intimate details alike are recognizable but seamlessly integrated. Combined with several strong performances -- Tom Hiddleston, known for portraying the cunning Loki in various Marvel movies, is particularly excellent as the charming but mysterious Thomas Sharpe -- the movie is a powerhouse of entertaining and spooky story meets nearly unmatched style meets artistic ingenuity meets a master craftsman at the top of his game.

Crimson Peak is a work of art on its surface, but the movie's excellence lies in the way Del Toro manages to integrate everything -- story, characters, themes, imagery, composition, and style -- into a coherent and cohesive whole. The movie is beautiful, dotted by graphic violence and frightening imagery that accentuates themes, even through the grotesque façade. Strong performances support, and while the climax feels a little too routine in light of what the rest of the movie has to offer, it remains a fantastic piece of filmmaking that excels well beyond the fairly generic Hollywood standard. Universal's Blu-ray features good video, excellent audio, and a healthy allotment of extra features. Very highly recommended.

[CSW] -2.8- I am a big Guillermo fan and wanted to like this film a whole lot more. It is definitely an exquisitely beautiful film and the special effects are cutting edge, perhaps a cut above the same techniques used in the Guillermo-produced Mama. I love the cast as well and everyone did their part to put the story across, especially Jessica Chastain in a very complex role. But the story, pieced together from a few old classics, was not new to me and alas, I found it completely predictable. Young people who are perhaps not familiar with some of the old haunted house Victorian and Gothic movies may get a few thrills or scares out of it, and may even enjoy the "twists" of the tale, but as a movie fan for more than 50 years, I have seen it all. I am indebted to Mr. Del Toro for being one of the directors who tries to bring original stories to the screen in this age of retreads and sequels, but this had too few fresh takes for me. I will probably watch again or buy purely for the stunning art direction and set design. They were in themselves a masterpiece. Nothing is quite as unsettling as leaves and snow falling through a five story foyer past winding staircases and interior balconies, the dark gothic hallways, and exquisite texture of peeling paint and general decay.
[V4.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 10/10.


º º