Jane Eyre meets House of Usher with ghosts of the past

RELEASED IN 2015 and written & directed by Guillermo del Toro, "Crimson Peak” is a Gothic drama/mystery/horror about a young woman (Mia Wasikowska) in the opening years of the 1900s who falls in love with a mysterious English man (Tom Hiddleston) and moves from Buffalo, NY, to a creepy English manor, where his weird older sister also lives (Jessica Chastain). Ghosts of the past make themselves known, ultimately leading to the truth.

Aside from Jane Eyre and House of Usher, both of which have been filmed several times, “Crimson Peak” has similarities to haunting Gothic flicks like “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), “The Others” (2001) and “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” (1994), but it’s thankfully nowhere near as ridiculously melodramatic as the latter. The spectral horror is more low-key than “Dracula” and “Frankenstein,” which is why I cite “The Others.” Psychological Gothic horror like “Demons of the Mind” (1972) and “The Eternal” (1998) are other comparisons. If you’re in the mood for a movie like these, you’ll probably appreciate “Crimson Peak.”

Honestly, this is one of the most sumptuously LOOKING movies I’ve ever seen. Take, for instance, the numerous scenes of Edith (Mia) walking down the lavish halls in an alluring white nightgown and flowing blond hair. The Gothic lushness is to die for.

Some people think the story is meh, but it’s no better or worse than the plots of the seven movies listed above. Whilst the first act in Buffalo is somewhat tedious, the movie picks up interest once Edith (Mia) moves to the unsettling English chateau, which has seen better days. I read a critic’s list of a dozen questions in an attempt to tear the film to pieces, but I easily answered all of them, which showed that this critic was intentionally LOOKING FOR something to dislike. Every potential quibble is effortlessly explained by clues in the picture or simply reading in-between the lines.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 59 minutes and was shot in Hamilton, Kingston and Toronto, Canada. ADDITIONAL WRITER: Matthew Robbins.

GRADE: B