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Guillermo del Toro on the Misunderstood Beauty of Crimson Peak
“The thing that will always, pun intended, haunt that movie is that it was sold as a horror movie.”
From the unabashed embrace of melodrama (verging on camp and sometimes crossing over) to the sincere empathy with sensitive but marginalized people and their emotionally malformed antagonists to the maximalist detail in the costumes and sets, del Toro’s sensibility is simultaneously 19th century and 21st. Directed by del Toro from his original screenplay, it ticked every box in terms of classic Gothic elements, including an innocent and trusting heroine, a brooding and troubled suitor, a gigantic mansion in a remote area, many dark secrets, and constant intimations of supernatural forces at work. Although it had a gorgeous and appealing cast (including Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, and Charlie Hunnam) and got mostly positive reviews, audiences rejected it, in large part because it had been sold as a somewhat straightforward horror movie with a period setting but was actually rather difficult to pigeonhole as any one thing.
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