Crimson Peak
Platform: VUDU (owned movie)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Release Year: 2005
Watch Date: July 28, 2021
My Rating: 8.3
I love a good ghost story. I think I’ve mentioned before that I have been fascinated by ghosts and the supernatural since I was little. I also adore Guillermo del Toro. His movies fascinate me. I love his use of color. Crimson Peak is a delightful ghost story. It follows American writer Edith Cushing as she falls in love with Thomas Sharpe, an English Baronet. Thomas talks Edith into going to a Ball that she didn’t want to go to where we meet Thomas’s sister Lucille. You can already tell something is off with her. She seems……..angry and jealous.
Edith’s father does not like Thomas, especially after learning some unsavory things about him and his sister. After confronting them Edith’s father and pays them to leave and break Edith’s heart. The next day Edith’s father is murdered. Edith ends up marrying Thomas and moving back to his home Crimson Peak with him.
Crimson Peak is falling apart and slowly sinking into the red clay pits beneath it (which give it its name). There is lots of tea drinking (which Edith doesn’t seem to like) and Edith starts to get sick. Simultaneously Thomas is using Edith’s money to further a piece of machinery he has been working on, and Edith is seeing terrifying ghosts. As Edith puts the pieces together she and Thomas spend one night out of the house, where they finally have sex after being married who knows how long.
When they get back home Lucille goes crazy because they weren’t supposed to be alone together and she should never be alone. Edith steals a key which opens a steamer trunk in the basement. There she finds information from three other marriages to women of means with no family. It’s easy to piece together that they siblings have been luring women to marry Thomas and once the siblings get their money they do off with the brides. Edith has just received a letter from her lawyer for the final transfer of funds.
Edith ends up finding the siblings in bed together, which is rather awkward. Lucille then tries to kill Edith. Edith’s doctor friend (Alan) from America shows up just at that moment, already knowing the truth about the siblings. He tries to rescue Edith but gets stabbed by Lucille in the process. Lucille tells Thomas to finish the job while she makes Edith sign the papers. Thomas has Alan show him where to stab him so it won’t be a problem then hides him in the basement. In the end Lucille is killed and Edith and Alan get away.
What I love about this movie is the rich colors used. At the dance scene in America all of the guests are wearing muted colors, except Lucille who is in a dress that is deep blood red. Aside from the ball scene, Edith is typically in bright colors like yellow, which is a stark contrast to the blacks and greys of England. And then there is the red ground that Crimson Peak sits on. When it snows the clay color leaches through the snow so it looks like blood.
The script is well written, the cinematography is fabulous, and the perfect actors were cast for each part.
Highly recommend, will watch again.
Photo Credit: imdb.com
