"Crimson Peak": reviews of critics and viewers, reviews, actors, content, plot

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

At the end of 2015, one of the most unusual and discussed films was the gothic mystical horror film Crimson Peak. Reviews and reviews of it flooded the media. The fact is that a picture with such an amazing visual range and a perfectly matched cast has not appeared on the screen for a long time. So, Crimson Peak. Reviews, content, the history of the creation of an extraordinary tape - the focus of our article.

Director of the picture

If you don't know the name of the author of a gothic horror movie, it's almost impossible to guess who worked on it. The director of the film "Crimson Peak", reviews of which were overwhelmingly favorable from critics, is Guillermo del Toro, famous for his unusual work in the cinema. His paintings are distinguished by a special visual style. Maybe this is due to the fact that at the dawn of his career in cinema, he worked for 10 years as a make-up artist. Del Toro is a controversial director. In Hollywood, he has a great credibility, although his work causes mixed reviews from critics. He is considered one of the most inventive directors in America - hecreates large-scale paintings filled with impressive effects, but they blame the weak disclosure of the characters' characters and the plots of his outstanding works that are too complicated for the audience to perceive.

Long road to the movie

The script for the future film "Crimson Peak", which received positive reviews from the audience, appeared in 2006. Why did the director's ideas come true only after 9 years? Guillermo del Toro himself explains this by saying that the picture has become something very personal for him, since he is a big fan of Gothic romance. Therefore, he did not want to rush to start filming and prepare everything properly. During this time, the director filmed the legendary "Pan's Labyrinth", the second part of Hellboy's adventures, "Pacific Rim" and co-authored a trilogy of novels, on which the series "The Strain" was filmed. But all these years he continued preparatory work for the gothic horror film "Crimson Peak", the first reviews of which were enthusiastic. He was able to start creating the tape only when he received firm guarantees that he would be able to fully realize his plan.

Film shooting

In April 2014, Guillermo del Toro began work on the painting Crimson Peak. Actors (reviews from critics on the composition of the performers were more than favorable) for the main roles had already been selected by that time.

The main filming location is the Canadian city of Kingston. The film was shot in a record time even for del Toro - 2 months. Considering that the director worked on his idea for 9 years and wrote 12 versions of the script, it was filmed simplyrapidly.

Fun fact: to help the actors get into their roles and feel the atmosphere of the 19th century era, del Toro offered to read them gothic novels of that time.

The entourage of the picture

The rave reviews about "Crimson Peak" are primarily due to the stunning design of the picture: magnificent scenery and costumes of the characters. Visually, the film looks amazing. The director chose the style of the 19th century not by chance - this is exactly the era when many houses were built according to the gothic canons dear to his heart. Everything in the picture is symbolic, and even the costumes of the characters emphasize this. So, the actresses Jessica and Mia, who played the main roles in the film, the shoulders of the outfits are decorated with details that resemble a moth and a butterfly. We will tell you more about why these elements of the heroines' costumes are needed in the picture below.

Actors and roles

Performers for the film "Crimson Peak", reviews in the world about which were positive, were selected carefully. But the original cast had to be changed radically. It may have only been for the better. Benedict Cumberbatch was originally chosen for the role of the main male character, and Emma Stone was supposed to embody one of the heroines on the screen. But the actors soon dropped out of the project due to their busy schedules. Del Toro had to quickly start recruiting another team of performers. He specially reworked the script for actor Tom Hiddleston, and he could not refuse a promising role. The problem was different - Cumberbatch and Hiddleston have been friends for many years, and the lastit was embarrassing to “take away” the role from an old friend. He asked Benedict for permission to shoot, and he replied that he did not see another actor in this role.

Edith Cushing – Mia Wasikowska

This actress is familiar to many from the magnificent adaptation of Carroll's fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland". She is 26 years old and originally from Australia. Although she intended to devote her life to ballet, at the age of 15, Mia received an invitation to shoot a movie. Thus began her career in cinema. The films in which she took part were not particularly successful, and the actress remained in the shadow of her more successful colleagues for a long time. Luck smiled at her in 2010, when she was invited to the role of Alice in Tim Burton's film. The film "Crimson Peak" (the plot, reviews and critics' opinions will be further in the article) became another lucky ticket to the world of big cinema that the actress got.

Critics praised Wasikowska's performance in the film, especially praising the fact that she performed most of the dangerous stunts herself. In one of the scenes (when she was pushed down the stairs), she fell from a height of 12 meters. According to the actress, she was very scared to perform the trick, but then she even liked to fly down from the height of a 4-story building.

Thomas Sharp – Tom Hiddleston

The 34-year-old British actor became incredibly popular after the release of the fantastic action movie Thor, where he brilliantly acted as an antagonist of positive characters - the god Loki. Before this role, the actor had about 15 films, but they were not very famous for him.have brought. After the resounding success of "Thor", proposals rained down, as if from a cornucopia. From that moment on, the paintings with the participation of Hiddleston do not go unnoticed. He played in three more films in the Marvel comics universe, in the fantasy drama about vampires Only Lovers Left Alive and the historical film Henry V.

Those who watched "Crimson Peak" (reviews of the film are presented below) will confirm that Guillermo del Toro was not mistaken in choosing Thomas Sharpe Hiddleston for the role. The protagonist of the picture is an insanely attractive, but at the same time a dark hero, mysterious and dangerous. He is not innocent at all, and the director wanted to show by his example whether a person who has violated the laws of morality is worthy of true love. Del Toro thinks Tom Hiddleston is the perfect fit for Crimson Peak's protagonist, as he combines danger and vulnerability at the same time. This is exactly how the director Thomas Sharp imagined.

Now the actor is involved in several interesting projects at once. He starred in one of the most anticipated films of 2017 - the third part of the Thor. He can also be seen in the King Kong film, where Hiddleston will play the lead role.

Lucille Sharp - Jessica Chastain

For her 38 years, the actress starred in more than 30 films, but success did not come to her immediately. For the first time on the screen, she appeared in the series "Dark Shadows". In 2008, she finally took part in the filming of a feature film. Success came to the actress in 2011, after the release of two films at once, which received high marks from critics,- Tree of Life and Reckoning. For Chastain, critically acclaimed, Crimson Peak is not the first horror film in his filmography. In 2013, she starred in the horror-drama film Mom, where she played a guitarist who, by chance, had to take custody of her boyfriend's two young nieces, who had lived in the forest all alone for several years.

Of the latest most successful works of the actress, such films as "Interstellar" and "The Martian" should be noted.

Guillermo del Toro was delighted when he learned that Jessica Chastain had agreed to participate in his film. In his understanding, Lucille is not unequivocally a villain, she is characterized by ambivalence (duality). He believes that it was this character of the heroine that attracted Jessica.

Critical reviews of Crimson Peak were largely positive due to her brilliant acting. She looked amazing in the role of stylish elegant Lucille, hiding a terrible secret. Jessica Chastain's work is always highly appreciated. She is called a gifted actress who can breathe life into any role, and the performance of a gifted performer is sometimes compared to a "live wire".

Alan McMichael - Charlie Hunnam

The actor got a relatively small, but important role of the friend of the heroine Wasikowski, who is in love with her. Hunnam is known to the viewer for another picture of del Toro - a fantastic action movie "Pacific Rim", in which he played a major role. There are not many films in the actor's arsenal. Hunnam explainsthis is because he does not want to take on any of the roles offered to him. He takes his acting reputation seriously and understands that the choices he makes will determine the course of his film career in the future.

The mansion is a separate participant in what is happening on the screen

The director paid special attention to the family nest of the Sharpov brother and sister. You shouldn't look for the Allerdale mansion on a map of Canada - the house was completely rebuilt on the set. Actually, the director needed 9 long years to prepare everything thoroughly and make sure that the budget of the picture would allow the construction of a whole house. He didn't want to shoot the film just in some abandoned building, he needed a place that would also be an active participant in the events. Del Toro achieved the effect he needed - according to his idea, the viewer had to understand that the house has its own face, eaten away by ulcers. It, like its inhabitants, has been abandoned to its fate and is slowly dying.

The mansion lives its own strange and frightening life. It oozes red clay, like blood, through a huge gap in the roof snow and fallen leaves get inside. The house slowly withers and dies, as does the aristocratic family of its owners.

The interior decoration of the rooms of the mansion was also thought out to the smallest detail. The central oak staircase, the portraits on the walls, the long corridors, the old bathtub - everything was real. Even the floorboards creaked under the actors' feet, as they would in a real-life abandoned house.

KUnfortunately, the magnificent mansion was demolished after filming ended.

Crimson Peak Reviews and Critics' Reviews

The film received mostly positive reviews - more than 70% of reviewers liked it. First of all, critics noted the magnificent visual beauty of the film. The scenery, costumes of the characters - everything was thought out to the smallest detail, and this played a role in the positive perception of the picture. The critics separately noted the brilliant camera work.

The positive reviews about Crimson Peak from critics are the result of long and painstaking work by both the director and the entire film crew. Del Toro managed to create a beautifully scary fairy tale, in which ghosts turn out to be messengers, foreshadowing trouble and warning that people should not be afraid of otherworldly forces.

Film "Crimson Peak": reviews of viewers

Del Toro's gothic horror was widely covered in the press ahead of the show. As always, the abundance of advertising has led to the fact that the expectations of the film were somewhat overstated. But the picture received a generally positive response from viewers.

Particularly interesting is the opinion of those who have an art education about the painting. One of the viewers compared the film to the paintings of Rembrandt, where there is the same play of light and shadow and fine details. He received aesthetic pleasure from every frame thanks to the thoughtfulness of the composition, the costumes of the characters and the scenery.

You need to understand that del Toro's film mixes several genres, but in general this is a gothic drama about love. Ghosts play a secondary role here, they are victimspeople's actions. Those viewers who went to the premiere hoping to see a classic horror film with an abundance of blood were disappointed. The film is somewhat more aimed at a female audience. It shows the story of the tragic love of two characters created for each other, but who did not have a joint future.

Love the film and fans of gothic and various fantasy worlds. As for the general audience, they will primarily appreciate the crazy, albeit somewhat theatrical beauty of the picture.

Plot of the picture

Guillermo del Toro made a film about brutal anti-romantic love. He showed the viewer two categories of lovers: moths and butterflies. The moth (Lucille Sharp became its personification) is a predator that eats its own kind. Butterfly (Edith Cushing) is a gentle and vulnerable creature. To emphasize what type of heroine they are, their dresses were decorated with elements resembling butterfly and moth wings.

The action in the picture takes place at the beginning of the 19th century. Edith Cushing is the daughter of a prominent Buffalo industrialist. She dreams of becoming a writer and has written a novel that she is trying to get published. But the publishers advise her not to waste energy on a book in the mystical genre, but to switch to writing romance novels. The girl twice in her life encountered the ghost of her mother, who died when Edith was still a child. Otherworldly forces warn the heroine, advising her to beware of the Crimson Peak.

One day, having come to her father, she meets a visiting baronet Thomas Sharp, who is looking for finance to create his invention - a mining devicered clay, from which excellent bricks are made in England. Clay deposits are located on the territory of the family estate of the baronet and his sister. But Sharpe is vaguely suspicious of the industrialist, and he hires a private detective. The next morning, Carter Cushing is killed. The baronet supports the girl in her grief. She soon marries him and the couple travel to Allerdale Manor.

An old house makes a frightening impression on Edith. It is dilapidated and literally falling apart, snow falls from a broken roof right into the hall, and red water flows from the taps due to deposits of red clay, which are located directly under the house. But the biggest shock awaits the heroine ahead - she learns that because of the red clay that stains everything around, the locals call the estate "Crimson Peak".

At this time, in Edith's homeland, her friend Alan, a doctor by training, begins his own investigation into the death of her father. He is highly suspicious of the circumstances of the death and does not believe it was an accident. He goes to the detective, who received the task from the murdered industrialist to find out details about the Sharpe family. The young man learns the secret of the baronet and his sister and hastily travels to England to Edith.

The newly-baked baroness at this time is subjected to another test - it is as if the horrors of childhood are returning to her. Edith again begins to see ghosts that no longer warn her of danger, but pursue her. The girl's suspicions also begin to be raised by her husband's older sister, who finds many excuses not togive the keys to all the premises of the mansion. Edith decides to find out what secret Lucille is hiding from her, and why her sister and brother persistently warn her against going down to the basement of the mansion, where the red clay mine is located.

Flaws of the painting

Some of the audience did not like the slowness of the film's narrative. They were expecting some action and were disappointed by the length of the tape. It is worth recalling again that Crimson Peak is a film designed for the same fans of gothic novels as del Toro is. In his picture, the influence of Edgar Allan Poe's work, "Sleepy Hollow" and another film of the director, "The Ridges of Madness" can be traced. For all these works, action is not typical. It is present only at the very end, before the denouement.

The predictability of the plot is another of the shortcomings of the picture, according to some viewers. But the plot is far from the main thing that interested del Toro. He wanted to show love in its two manifestations - destructive and healing, and to trace the development of the characters' feelings. Therefore, there was no need for a famously twisted storyline with an unexpected denouement. Everything is predictable almost from the very beginning, and this makes it even more sad that two people who just found each other cannot be together.

Conclusion

Del Toro's Crimson Peak is an incredibly atmospheric film with great visuals and an excellent cast. Let it not scare the viewer to death, but it will definitely be rememberedfor a long time.