Does 'Crimson Peak' Hit the Frightful Mark? Critics Weigh In
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oquZifON8Eg
Mia Wasikowska plays a woman lured into a mysteriously creepy home by a stranger she falls for in "Crimson Peak" - but according to critics, it isn't the storyline that makes the film worthwhile.
The Guillermo del Toro-directed horror film boasts an impressive cast (Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam, Tom Hiddleston) and brag-worthy sets and effects, but apparently lacks in substance.
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Hitting theaters on Friday, keep reading to see what reviewers think of this movie, which received a 71 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes:
"Never let it be said that Guillermo del Toro's 'Crimson Peak' is not a lush Gothic ghost story. On the contrary, it just about Gothics itself to death. Like one of del Toro's Victorian apparitions, the plot is a wisp tricked out in fabulous threads — and the pallid trio of Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston an afterthought to the sumptuous costumes, sound design and sets ... Kudos to del Toro for bucking the minimalist trend in spooky movies, but his Grand Guignol spirits are so visible, they begin to resemble fun-house monsters." -- Sara Stewart, NYPost.com
From what it sounds like from some, you're likely to get more spooked from the monsters you'll see walking by on Halloween than any of the figures you'll see in this film.
"Guillermo del Toro tries his elegant best to shake the cobwebs from a musty old genre but still ends up telling a very traditional and predictable haunted house yarn in 'Crimson Peak.' The gifted fantasy/sci-fi/horror specialist has made a film that's very bloody, and bloody stylish at that, one that's certainly unequaled in its field for the beauty of its camerawork, sets, costumes and effects. But it's also conventionally plotted and not surprising or scary at all, as it resurrects hoary horror tropes from decades ago to utilize them in conventional, rather than fresh or subversive, ways." -- Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
"Even the pristine white snow bleeds bright scarlet in 'Crimson Peak,' the malformed love child between a richly atmospheric gothic romance and an overripe Italian giallo — delivered into this world by the mad doctor himself, horror maestro Guillermo del Toro, operating at his most stylistically unhinged. Aflame with color and awash in symbolism, this undeniably ravishing yet ultimately disappointing haunted-house meller is all surface and no substance, sinking under the weight of its own self-importance ..." -- Peter Debruge, Variety
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