Monday 21 December 2015

Crimson Peak (2015)

Crimson Peak
IMDB rate: 6,8
Genre: Ghost
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam
My rate: 5

It's been a long time since I wrote a review. I was a bit burned out from writing I suppose, busy with school and just not interested in writing for a bit. I love horror movies, and I always will, but it's a fact that 90% of horror movies is garbage and I suppose writing about them would be just more or less the same like previous ones. It's not that I didn't watch any horror movies or something, I actually still have a lot of concepts waiting to be written. It's more that I just didn't feel like writing about them I suppose.
Recently I watched the movie Crimson Peak, a movie I was very interested in and happens to be made by the director of an excellent movie: Pan's Labyrinth. Now I must admit that I don't like everything Guillermo del Toro has made. For example, I wasn't much of a fan of Hellboy and Pacific Rim. I also didn't like Don't Be Afraid in the Dark too much. Anyway, the trailer of Crimson Peak was promising and many people seemed to like it so I was glad I was finally able to see it.
To officially start this review I'd like to start with saying that I wasn't a very big fan of Crimson Peak. I was actually rather bored during most parts of it and thought it was kinda predictable. But! By seeing this movie it gave me some new-found inspiration to write a new review again! This is not because I want to burn this movie down with my opinion, not at all. It's more that I find this movie interesting to discuss because it's had some elements that I found interesting or whatever.


Storyline
In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds - and remembers.

Worldwide Accents
There's a great bunch of actors in Crimson Peak. Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Stoker) did in my opinion a decent job portraying Edith. I did think her character could've used some character development. To me it seems like Edith was just a very plain woman, who just happens to be a bit stubborn and curious. I think she should've had more lines to make her character seem more interesting.
Tom Hiddleston's (The Avengers, Thor) character Thomas is kinda opposite of that, since he seemed to get all the character development and all the lines in this entire movie. He's the one talking the most and the entire story seems to be more about Thomas than about Edith. Tom Hiddleston did portray Thomas very well though, he has great looks for the "charming/mysterious" man. And his eyes, oh man his eyes will even make the viewers believe he's totally legit.
Rising star Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Mama, Interstellar) I was actually kinda disappointed about. I love her in other movies, she's a great actress with many talents I think. Her role in Crimson Peak as Lucille just wasn't really her thing I suppose. The entire character was just too much, too obvious and just not a suiting character for Chastain. In my opinion Jessica Chastain is an excellent choice for movies such as Interstellar and Zero Dark Thirty. Movies like Mama and Crimson Peak, I think not so much.

I think the casting in Crimson Peak was a bit odd. The beginning of the movie is set in America, where Edith, her father (Jim Beaver) and her friend Alan (Charlie Hunnam) are from. The second half of the movie is set in the UK, where Thomas and Lucille are from. Now the thing I find odd about this, and actually quite a bit annoying as well, are the accents in this movie. They were not performed all too great. Mia Wasikowska, originally from Australia, has to perform an American accent, which in my opinion sounded more British than American. Charlie Hunnam is originally from the UK and has a more British accent as well. Jim Beaver is actually the only one from America and he is also the only one with a believable accent. Tom Hiddleston is from Britain and luckily he had to perform a British accent, which was done great of course. Jessica Chastain on the other hand is from America and her British accent, not so good.


Don't Be Afraid of Mama?
Crimson Peak felt too me as if I was watching Don't Be Afraid of the Dark again, but then like a very early prequel. The house is more or less the same: Big, creepy and haunted. Also the entire vibe was a bit the same, but like I said, just about 100 years earlier. The ghosts looked very lame to be as well. At first it felt as if I was watching a red version of the ghost in Mama, where Guillermo del Toro happens to be a producer off. Coincidence? I think not. Then after a bit it felt as if I was watching at the in-game ghost of the movie Stay Alive. Since it's an in-game ghost it doesn't look very real so now you know how the ghosts in Crimson Peak look. Basically, ghost creation wasn't the strongest point of Crimson Peak.
The scares in the movie were kinda predictable as well. Shadows passing by in the background, silly jump-scares and weird CGI ghosts crawling to Edith (who didn't even looked to surprised about it). Well, I actually think the entire movie was kinda predictable. I'm not going to spoil anything but I don't know why they try to keep that *secret* as some major surprise when they basically revealed it already in the beginning of the movie. The movie just feels a bit empty to be honest. By the way, Am I the only one who thought that stabbing scene was the lamest stabbing scene in movie history?

Visuals
Nope, I wasn't a fan of Crimson Peak. It felt like a gothic romance story where they threw some ghosts in to make it seem horror. The ghosts actually are just some side-story to fill up the story about Edith's misfortune to run into the Sharpe's and thus friend-zoning the good-guy. I must admit that one thing that didn't 'underwhelm' me was the visual aspect of Crimson Peak. With that I mean how incredibly good the locations looked. An amazingly beautiful house, great setting for a gothic romance indeed. Sadly, visuals don't make a movie.

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