Sunday 3 April 2016

Film Review: Crimson Peak.

Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Matthew Robbins and Lucinda Coxon
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Staring: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam.
Release date: 16th October 2015 (uk)
DVD release date: 15th February 2016 (uk)

Set in 1891, Crimson peak is a gothic romance, horror, staring Mina Wasikowska as Edith Cushing, Tom Hiddleston s Thomas Sharpe and Jessica Chastain as Lucile Sharpe. 
After the death of her father Edith moves from Buffalo, N.Y. to Cumbria England with her new husband Thomas Sharpe, where she is meet with ghosts, murder and incest

I'm a bit of horror film addict weather it's a Hollywood movie with a budget or a b movie with pocket money, the darker the better, and the stranger the better.
I got the book "Crimson Peak, The Art Of Darkness" for Christmas and I put off properly reading it until I watched the film, I didn't want to many spoilers.
There was a part of me that was expecting something a little more darker. Had this film been from the the 1980s/90s it would be there.
At different points in the film it had me think, 'are Lucile and Thomas not brother and sister' and then 'Maybe its a bit of a Dorain Grey twist' Not a bad thing that if it keeps you thinking.
But it turned out to be neither.  Instead its a brother and sister how at a young age, well early teens  become sexually involved. You soon see that it is Lucile that has a psychopathic lusting control over Thomas, Having him marry a rich girl once mverd in to their home they slowly pisin them and then when her money or dalry is in their hands she then kills them.
There is a conversation between Lucie and Edith regarding butterflies


EDITH: Is it a butterfly?
LUCILE: No. But it will be soon.
EDITH: Oh, I hadn't seen them. They're dying.
LUCILE: They take their heat from the sun and when it deserts them, they die.
EDITH: That's sad.
LUCILE: No, it's not sad, Edith. It's nature. It's a savage world of things dying or eating each other, right beneath our feet.
EDITH: Surely there's more to it than that.
LUCILE: Beautiful things are fragile. At home, we have only black moths. Formidable creatures, to be sure, but they lack beauty. They thrive on the dark and the cold.
EDITH: What do they feed on?
LUCILE: Butterflies, I'm afraid.

She's almost talking about herself. For she is the black moth that kills the inercent beauty of Thomas's wives. She is the one that thieves in the cold and dark of there world feasting on these who thrive in the warmth.
In one of the final scenes you see that she keeps black moths on her dresser in jars, even though the whole floor where her room is, is surrounded buy them. (she is one) She also has butterflies on a what looks like a bead tree bunch. She keeps a souvenirs form his wives that she has killed and their mother, A lock of hair in a dresses draw. 
When arriving Allerdale Hall in Cumbria Thomas and Edith are greater by a small dog which Thomas says is not theres and it could be from the town as it is a days walk, Yet he is happy to let her keep it, to please his new wife. It then turns out that he used to belong to his late wife. You soon find out that he had left the dog out in the cold to die rather then killing it with his own hands. Nearing the end of the film you hear Lucile kill the dog, before ordering her brother to kill Dr Alan McMichael, ((Charlie Hunnam) Who has traveled to England to warn and save Edith.) Thomas asks the doctor where he should stab him to give him a chance to live, Showing that Thomas has compassion and is not as messed up as his older sister.

The cinematography is good but what struck me was that the film starts in Ameracia, the new world, filled with new opportunities and new money, yet it is film slightly darker then in England which is the old world, old money, (and its Cumbria). Yes its the start of Edith new life with her husband, leaving behind the death of the father, but to me it just seams the wrong way round, considering that it is england that all the ghosts walk. even though it is almost winter and there is snow on the ground, it just seams why to bright.

The first time that you see Sir Thomas Sharpe B
aronet, it is the office of Edith's father, Carter Cushing. Where Edith is typing up a story that she has wrote, with in seconds he has notice and read it. I hate this scene it feels as if it is just being read from a page and after thought to add to the film.


THOMAS: Good morning, miss. Forgive the interruption. I have an appointment with Mr. Carter Everett Cushing.
SECRETARY: Goodness. With the great man himself.
THOMAS: I'm afraid so.
EDITH: ---Reading form his card--- "Sir Thomas Sharpe, Baronet."
SECRETARY: He'll be here shortly.
THOMAS: Thank you.
---Edith getting up from the desk and walks around to he other side of the desk---
EDITH: You're not late, are you? He hates that.
THOMAS: Uh, not at all. In fact, I'm a little early.
EDITH: Oh, I'm afraid he hates that, too.
THOMAS: I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry, but this is a piece of fiction, is it not?
EDITH: Yes.
THOMAS: Who are you transcribing this for?
EDITH: It's to be sent to New York tomorrow, to The Atlantic Monthly.
THOMAS: Well, whoever wrote it, it's rather good, don't you think?
EDITH: Really?
THOMAS: It's certainly captured my attention.
EDITH: I wrote it. It's mine.
THOMAS: Ghosts?
EDITH: Well, the ghosts are just a metaphor...
THOMAS: They've always fascinated me. You see, where I come from ghosts are not to be taken lightly.

The ghosts of the wives and the mother are these rich red apparitions half broken bodes and deformed. The red colour comes from the red ore front the mines below the house that these women have died trying to fullfilll the dream of the two Sharpe's to restore their home where the two of them can live. Away from the world.
Other times you see mist shape ghosts walking in the background in the house.

I just kept expecting something more to happen for there to be a darker twist. Pans Labyrinth was a beautify film by  Guillermo del Toro, more of fairy tail for adults, where at the end of Crimson Peak one of my thoughts was it was a bit of teenage horror chick flick. Don't get me wrong its a good film its just lacking something. more fear, darkness, may be a little deeper acting as some times it really did seam as if it was reign read form a book from all of them.

"Ghosts are real. This much, I know. 
There are things that tie them to a place, very much like they do us.
Some remain tethered to a patch of land. A time and date.
The spilling of blood. A terrible crime. But there are others. Others that hold onto an emotion. A drive. Loss. Revenge. Or love. Those, they never go away." 

--- Lady Edith Sharpe.