• Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak is much closer to the extraordinary quality of his Oscar-winning The Shape of Water (the film he made directly following Crimson Peak) than the critics would have you believe (and me too without a second, closer look)
  • An achievement of cinematic color and production design
gorgeous set design here and use of lighting- sublime
  • Del Toro brings back the iris here as an editing device—at least 5 times that I counted- absolutely works. Well executed, consistent, and pairs well with the material
Del Toro brings back the iris here as an editing device—at least 5 times that I counted- absolutely works. Well executed, consistent, and pairs well with the material
  • Del Toro doesn’t move the camera like his countryman Iñárritu and Cuarón, but his work in mise-en-scene and color—immaculate here—it is his focus and he’s at least strong as Cuarón (which is a crazy high compliment)- superior to Iñárritu. The three of them will be talked about historically 30-50 years from now just like we talk about Rossellini/De Sica/Visconti or any other three amazing auteurs that emerge around the same time from the same country or any “New Wave” like Fassbinder/Herzog/Wenders
  • Opens on Mia Wasikowska in all white, a great shot- dissolves- foreshadowing the ending
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Opens on Mia Wasikowska in all white, a great shot- dissolves- foreshadowing the ending — Crimson Peak‘s costume work is extraordinary
  • Strong gothic horror shadow work
  • The blocking and arrangement of bodies is evidence early on with the row people at the funeral
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The blocking and arrangement of bodies is evidence early on with the row people at the funeral
  • I had to talk about flaws in any film, I prefer to observe their strengths—and this isn’t a flaw really— the film would just be better with a bigger figure to play Wasikowska’s father. I think Chris Cooper- maybe even Kurt Russell make it a better film
  • Gothic- very Bronte (Wasikowska had just played Jane Eyre in Fukunaga’s adaptation), Jane Austen is in the text
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the castle is a character in the film- exteriors and interiors
  • An achievement in costume work- just like Shape of Water
  • Green and red tinting in the fireplace room/scene
Green and red tinting in the fireplace room/scene
  • The castle- Allerdale Hall is one hell of a set piece- great frame of them entering
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del Toro well aware of the strong tradition of gothic horror while also paving his own road at the same time
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del Toro’s trademark expressionism
  • Wasikowska’s character entering a door like the shot in Pan’s Labyrinth­– auteur cinema as its finest
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from Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006
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from Crimson Peak in 2015
  • True to de Toro’s continued use of good ghosts and monsters—the human beings are the evil ones as always
  • Woman from the bath in a mansion like this—hard not to think of The Shining (Charlie Hunnam even plays the Scatman role here sort of)
  • The poisoning of the tea is from Hitchcock’s Notorious
  • The shot at 46 minutes—unbelievably beautiful- the bath scene and emerald circular window
The shot at 46 minutes—unbelievably beautiful- the bath scene and emerald circular window
  • Highly Recommend – just too gorgeous to ignore