See CRIMSON PEAK on the biggest screen you can. Let it enfold you. It’s a film to be absorbed. Luxuriate in it. But don’t get too comfortable.
CRIMSON PEAK cost a lot of money and it surely looks like it did. Hate to say I sort of understand why it under-performed, in American box office terms — with whispers of incest and baby murders, less sophisticated audiences can easily miss the point. Not that those elements are meant to be a draw — quite the contrary, but it’s admirable that a film engaging with the notion of fear betrays little fear itself. This movie is brave and bold.
And subject matter aside, it’s a legitimate marvel of production design and costuming. Director Guillermo Del Toro and his cinematographer Dan Laustsen maximize the frame, infusing every millimeter with rich color and deep shadow. The movie blooms.
Out of all the performers in the film, Jessica Chastain dominates — her role is recessive by design for the first two-thirds of the story, but when she takes center stage, it’s with redoubtable ferocity. Del Toro has said the film isn’t intended as a horror movie — if that’s the case, put Chastain down for all the awards, since horror never gets its due. But if it is a horror movie, then she’s its most fearsome monster, and good God is that a beautiful thing.
– JON ABRAMS.
BUY IT HERE!
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Tags: Blu-ray, Burn Gorman, Charlie Hunnam, Dan Laustsen, Doug Jones, Fernando Velázquez, Ghosts, guillermo del toro, Horror, Jessica Chastain, Jim Beaver, Leslie Hope, Matthew Robbins, Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston
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