My favourite Guillermo del Toro movie is 2015's Crimson Peak but somehow I'd only seen it once before last night. I remember clearly that day in 2015. I wore my black frock coat with a purple tie and a lavender shirt and saw the movie at Plaza Bonita Mall. It seemed the right attire for this stylishly Victorian film.
I saw Guillermo del Toro promoting the film at Comic Con and he talked about the influences on the plot, the kind of psychological gothic romances that are very visible in the story set in a big, strange house. He also talked about the details he carefully constructed for character backstories and the marvellous house itself. He talked about how the rooms reflected the characters who occupied them. Certainly Jessica Chastain's character, Lucille, has a room that shows her severe, pathological madness, including a drawer where she stashes locks of hair from her victims.
I was reminded of Hitchcock's Notorious and one can certainly also see Rebecca or Suspicion. In terms of visual and sound design, no movie had been so lushly phantasmagoric since Bram Stoker's Dracula. I suspect it was a heavy influence--you can see it in all the iris wipes and the unrestrainedly fantastic horror of the skeletal ghosts.
For people who like this kind of story, the movie's a great slice of cake, though I suppose I can understand why many don't see the appeal. But I like this movie so much better than The Shape of Water, which I don't hate. But Shape of Water seems too dominated by political influence, under which the story of a weird romance gets a little muffled. Crimson Peak is 100% indulgence.
Crimson Peak is available on Netflix in the UK.
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