Simply Perfect

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

What a sad excuse of a movie, longest 2 hours of my life, couldn't wait to finish this movie and see how it ends, it was all predictable and pale, sadly,del toro delivers his worst work yet.

My judgement is purely based on the screenplay I read not the movie itself. But what I have read from the movie synopsis it seems they somewhat deviated from the story while making it. The story starts beautifully - interesting female protagonist, Edith, her father - self-made businessman, Boston society. Then it gets confusing with each turn as Edith who is a clever, educated and aspiring, suddenly becomes somewhat dumb and starry eyed and falls for the antagonist too easily - Mr. Sharp. Then her father turns into an antagonist too... Being a woman several scenes stood out as not quite true or believable - one is when Mr. Sharp comes to Edith at night asking her to join him to the Ball, when couple of hours before she refused to go there with her father. From being in her pyjamas and writing away her book she suddenly transported to the Ball, all beautifully dressed and stuns everyone with her dance... In real life try to get a woman out of her pyjamas and into the Ball... Good luck, I would say, as women need lots of time to prepare. I also found it not very believable when her father would not show her the papers that he discovered about Mr. Sharp but instead keeps it secret and pays Sharp to leave and also break her heart too. Not quite the character that was portrayed in the beginning of the story. Personally, I think there was no need for any ghosts at all, as Edith discovers the truth by finding clothes and albums of previous women who stayed at the castle and were murdered, so she is able to understand what has happened and will happen to her. Doctor suddenly becoming alive in the basement also is unrealistic and does not serve any purpose... The end is also very confusing - Edith gets out saying she decided to live but she never gave an impression of a person who did not want to live... I believe it could have been such a wonderful story but somehow it was lost to maybe 'too many cooks' and a wish to make a horror movie out of it. What a pity.

Pan's Labyrinth made sense because the underlying motif was the Spanish Civil War and the horrors of the war allowed the nightmare imagery. This on the contrary is just a petit guignol gothic melodrama. While it shows that Hiddleston is suited to the saturnine and cadaverous, Jessica Chastain's role as the evil sister is thoroughly overplayed. But the red skeletons that keep appearing do nothing but make you laugh - they are too shiny and synthetic and ther movements comic in their efforts to scare. What a waste of Dle Toro's imagination - maybe he needs the money - yet he put his name to the script. And what on earth is the red liquid underground clay that they pump out - there's not enough story to suggest it's a metaphor for anything - and I've never heard of red sludge there for the digging. You can't introduce too many random fantasy elements or it fails to dispel the disbelief. There were also elements that were foregrounded to have a significance but then never did - the clay machine, the dog, the red vat of gunk, the faithful retainer. Three stars is over generous.

I re-watched Crimson Peak and I liked it again. Yes, the story itself is predictable but the fine actors and especially the superb visuals give enough goodies for the connoisseur of Gothic horror. Director Guillermo del Toro knows his business, and the main actors Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston play their roles well. A good watch for you if you like such movies as The Woman in Black, The Others, A Cure For Wellness, The Awakening, Fall of the House of Usher etc.For the visuals a nine, the acting and directing a 7 and for the story a 5. Makes a neat 7.