Crimson Peak Yay or Nay? #Movies Gothic #Horror #GuillermoDelToro #Blogtober #Halloween

On By Reads & ReelsIn Fantasy, Horror

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Happy Monday folks!

Today’s post is part review, part discussion. I’m going to talk about Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic Horror, Crimson Peak.

How many of you are fans of del Toro? Do you enjoy his unique blend of fantasy and horror, or do you find it too bizarre?

When I saw Pan’s Labyrinth years ago, it was unlike any movie I had ever seen. As a life-long fan of Tim Burton, I have a fondness for unusual movies, so I was quite taken with it. The plot was dark and sinister, but I thought del Toro’s monsters were so imaginative, and very beautiful in their own way.

panslabyrinth_still_01

Since then, I have seen many of his movies but none of them really came close to Pan’s Labyrinth. As a result, I wasn’t really keen to see Crimson Peak when it was released and despite glowing reviews, I haven’t watched The Shape of Water yet either. I will though, it’s on my list!

Crimson Peak

Last night, I was in bed with a fever and chills. Unable to read (yep it was that bad!) but desperately needing a distraction, I began looking for something that would help take my mind off my discomfort, but not be something that I would care about missing if I nodded off, or zoned out. Cue Crimson Peak.

I wish so much this was a book. No not the novelisation, but an actual novel that had come before the film, because I think it would have been amazing. It has all the qualities of a good gothic novel and a plot that needs to be expanded. For example, it would have been good to have a larger picture of Thomas and Lucille’s childhood. We know it was messed up, obviously, but knowing more about their parents would be good.

The movie was decent though. Set design was pretty spectacular, and I really loved the cast. The ghosts however, leave a little to be desired. It could be that the effects are a bit dated, but I thought they were kind of cheesy. Mind you, my bar was set pretty high because of their creator.

The premise was excellent! A classic Victorian horror with all the trimmings. That I really enjoyed!

I don’t know, I guess like all things groundbreaking or totally original, it’s not as special the second, third, or fourth time around. Pan’s Labyrinth blew me away so everything that has come after just doesn’t impress me as much.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this movie or Guillermo del Toro. Have you read the novelization and is it worth reading?

Let’s chat!

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31 thoughts on “Crimson Peak Yay or Nay? #Movies Gothic #Horror #GuillermoDelToro #Blogtober #Halloween”

  1. I adore this movie! I remember it had a lot of negative reviews when it came out because it’s not scary, but the movie was wrongly marketed as horror, it’s Gothic mystery actually and it did well for what it was supposed to be. I’m a huge del Toro fan and even though this isn’t his best (That’s the Pan’s Labyrinth), I really loved it and I too wish it was based on a book! I didn’t know there was a novelization, I’ll check it out, great review! 🙂 Btw, The Shape of Water is excellent, hope you like it! Another btw, I’m also Tim Burton’s lifelong fan! 😀

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  2. I liked it. I tried to keep my expectations realistic (as I too love del Toro and I think Tom Hiddleston is amazing) but I enjoyed the film. I liked the vibe. I liked the fantastical feelings of hauntings that his work offers, as opposed to more traditional jump-scare horror fair. I agree with your thoughts on wanting to see some of it expanded. I often get the sense that there’s a larger world del Toro wants to get at in his films. So, while it wasn’t my favorite of his, I still found it enjoyable.

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      1. I really think he will. Here’s my (admittedly cynical) take. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ was a HUGE hit for Marvel. Both Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth (who said before he was over the character) have said they’d love to come back to do another. Given the box office haul/fan and critical reaction ‘Ragnarok’ got, I’m betting Thor, Loki, Valkyrie, and maybe Hulk all survive for future cosmic adventures across the MCU.

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      2. I loved that movie! It was so different from The Avengers. Thor is supposed to be funny and I thought he did a great job.

        As for Loki, he’s like a cat so I’m not worried. Apparently, most of the marvel characters that died, have movies coming out AFTER the Infinity War timeline! I wonder how they will do it? Someone will go after the gauntlet and rewind maybe 🤔 I don’t think Gamora is dead. This of course is based on he cinematic universe of course.

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      3. It’s like someone at Marvel saw ‘Ghostbusters: Answer the Call’ and realized, “Hey…..Chris Hemsworth is SUPER funny. We should use this!” I randomly think of that scene of him hanging in the chains in front of Surtr and just laugh.

        As to everyone else, I don’t read any spoilers because I like to be surprised but I have read A LOT of comics so I have my guesses. But I don’t want to inadvertantly spoil anything for you! So if you want to know, I’ll share. If not, I promise to not lie and after ‘Avengers 4’ comes out I’ll honestly let you know if I was right :).

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      4. Okay don’t tell me! You can tell me after. My son doesn’t seem to be too concerned, though he did not like the movie. He said it should have been called the Thanos movie lol. He’s confident some will return. It would just break his heart of Spiderman was gone forever lol. Did I mention he’s a grown man 😉

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      5. Hey, I’m thirty-six and I’m a big movie crier! Whether happy, sad, or sweet, I’ll weep over it :). I’ve seen ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ at least half a dozen times and I cry every time. I’ve seen the new ‘A Star Is Born’ twice and I wept each time (it’s a gorgeous film). There are certain episodes of ‘Scrubs’ I’ve seen dozens of times and I still cry with them! So I get it.

        And yes, I’d agree with your son. I wasn’t a huge fan of ‘Infinity War’ and it was far more about Thanos than any of the heroes. They did make Thanos less…odd though. You can sympathize with his desire to fix things even if you reject his methods. In the comics he wanted to kill half of all life because he was literally romantically/erotically in love with the personification of Death. He was trying to woo it. Ummmm…ick.

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      6. Uh yeah, that’s very icky. Yes he is a more empathetic character in the movie. I guess because I’m not as emotionally attached to Marvel, I was able to watch the movie and just enjoy it as it was. I was okay with it. Now, if the next Wonder Woman movie was all about the villan, and they killed off the Justice League, I’d be pretty pissed lol.

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      7. My issues with ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ are far more than just the Thanos focus/characterization. But as I’ve written a few ranty posts about them on my site I don’t feel I need to get all ranty here in this comment thread ;). No one wants that! (Oh, but I do speculate on what I think will happen in ‘Avengers 4’ so there’s a head’s up for that too, should you be considering reading my take on it :).) I do think the MCU, overall, has been moving in a good direction with layered villains – Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger in ‘Black Panther’ specifically. But I go back on forth on whether or not I think it “worked” with Thanos.

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      9. Haha, okay, I just reread the first thing I wrote after seeing the film – “Avengers Infinity War: Expectations vs, Reality” – and you can read this without any spoilers. I don’t detail any of my expectations for ‘Avengers 4’ in it nor do I really roll with any sort of speculation. It’s not as sassy as some of the things I’d write afterwards :). But it still lets you enjoy my rant/problems with the film without any speculation that could yield potential spoilers in the future. Full disclosure, there could be a line you feel does that but I am 99.9% sure you’d be good.

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      13. Well I’m glad it was a worthwhile trip. And I can’t believe you read some of those! You’re bold. Should you want it, here’s the link to the first one:

        https://mycomicrelief.wordpress.com/2018/04/29/avengers-infinity-war-expectations-vs-reality/

        It’s funny because I was trying REALLY hard to like it when I wrote this. I still agree with what I wrote now, but I was trying to figure out how to sort all my feelings on it when I wrote this.

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  5. Pan’s Labyrinth is one of my all-time favorites. ❤ It's actually been a hot minute since I re-watched it, though, so perhaps I'm due to give it another go. 🙂
    Crimson Peak is one I've been meaning to watch since it came out but have never gotten to. I actually wanted to see it so bad that I read the novelization of it before it came out to theaters, and somehow still failed to go see it. (I did enjoy reading the novelization of it, I'm just awful about sitting down to watch something unless someone does it with me for some reason.) Short attention span and a way too busy schedule, I'm guessing. lol

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  6. I’ve never seen Pan’s Labyrinth (or any other Del Toro) so that probably benefited me when it came to Crimson Peak. I absolutely love it. It’s visually stunning (although maybe not the ghosts) but I’m mostly there for the gothic creepiness and compelling performances. I can’t resist watching it whenever it pops up on the TV schedules so have probably seen it at least a dozen times.

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  7. I think a book would be pretty great too and I adored the movie- it really left me with a kind of a feeling.. that feeling that only ever happens when something leaves one impressed 😀 Yeah, Crimson Peak is defo a Yay for me!
    Hope you feel better soon!

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