Kermode Uncut: Return To Crimson Peak

I posted recently saying how much I loved Crimson Peak and asking why some others felt so differently - here is some of your feedback.

[TheGrapeinc]

I like how the day before it came Del Toro tweeted something along the lines of "Before you go into Crimson Peak please remember that it is NOT a horror movie.

[ninersboy]

Loved "Crimson Peak" - one person's cliche is another person's archetype. Incredibly gorgeous with wonderful acting from Wasikowska, Hiddelston and Chastain.

[nicolewilliams]

But it isn't a CGI ghost. It's an actual person in costume with effects added. And people are complaining about trailers? Really??
I can't take these criticisms seriously if they aren't taking the film in for what it actually is.

[BenVost]

Nick Goulding (~5:10) should try to catch Victoria, my favourite film this year, although it apparently doesn't come out in Blighty until next spring :( 138 mins, 22 locations, several directors, five main cast, mostly improvised dialogue; filmed in a SINGLE TAKE. It's superb!

[Jiffzzy]

I watched it once and did not like it much but I rewatched it simply because I heard people talk about how deep the story was, which I felt I missed.
To all people who found it superficial I would advice you to give it another go, if you still don't like it nothing is lost, but I myself gained a favourite movie after the second watch

[ParkerStanfieldFilm]

I adored the film. But I worked graves for years, and it hit too close to home.

[GreenGretel]

It's interesting how each of the central performances has provoked notably divergent responses: Hiddleston, Chastain, and Wasikowska's performances all have their supporters and detractors, and the opinions are particularly split on Chastain.

I thought Catherine's take on the pleasures of this sort of film was very well put.

[johnbarnes]

Surely by now people who supposedly like film should disregard any notion of trailer based influence. There is absolutely no worth in viewing a trailer for a film. They regularly misrepresent the tone of a film to get bums on seats, give far too much away and make mediocrity look good. Please people, stop watching trailers.

[TheBlueMooney]

Personally really enjoyed Del Toro's latest release. Even though it plays with tropes already established in literature, everything in a cinematic sense was amazing.

[HumbleDictator]

Predictability of plots... Isn't that the gothic in a nutshell?

[matthewallen]

Great colours and set design, but little tension.

[jamesbastion]

I'm in the middle on it, I probably expected too much from it.

[simpleexplodingmaybe]

I find the worry about things being predictable one which people can get too hung up on. What did people expect from the promotion of the film and everything else about it. Surely films that fall broadly into horror are about the journey not the (final) destination.

[radicaladz]

Doug "Nostalgia Critic" Walker recently made the case that Tim Burton's Sleepy Hallow is best considered in the context of it being a stylised pastiche of the Hammer Horror franchise. I would go further and say that Sleepy Hollow is to Hammer, as Crimson Peak is to Roger Corman and Vincent Price's Edgar Allan Poe movies.

[oscarmike]

massive del Toro fan as well and enjoyed the movie. story is very predictable as many point out but think that was the point

music, production design, costume and blend of physical and cgi was great. just wish the predictable story had more interesting characters

kinda disappointed by the choral writing music wise. wish they had utilized a women choir angrily chanting or shouting to represent the ghosts

[tumppuman]

I consider Crimson Peak Del Toro's worst film after Mimic for all the reasons mentioned here. Especially the predictable plot. Even if it wasn't suppose to be a mystery it doesn't offer anything anything else in return. The story and characters is half-baked BECAUSE the incredibly obvious mystery still takes most of the run time. For example the movie doesn't take the incest angle far enough! The CG pops out at you from the set design and thats why it looks bad.

Only thing it has going for it is the performances and some pretty looking set design.

[dravenuk]

Haven't seen it yet but the CG ghosts did kinda put me off. CG just isn't scary. It is cartoony. Still, I do enjoy del Toro films so will be watching it at some point.

[MetallicAX]

For me it was the marketing, I saw one trailer before I saw it with friends and we all thought it was a horror/mystery. I didn't flinch once during the movie, the way they introduced the supernatural beings in their scenes was very predictable and plain boring.
The plot also was honestly bad, it was so straight forward I could've gone out after 30min, have a beer, come back and still wouldn't have missed a beat. Which also sets an example for the bad pacing.

What I did like was the Chastain and Hiddleston's performances, Chastain's performance being the standout.
The cinematography was equally to the set design the best in the movie and the thing that carried this movie from start to finish. If this movie was set in any time period, it would've been awful, which says alot for how the setting in Crimson Peak saved it from being one of the worst movies of 2015.

[Warp]

I assume it's better than Pacific Rimpiece

[necaacen]

big fan of films like pans lab etc. just saw this on netflix, i never read or watch reviews or trailers before a film, never read the plot etc, to the point where i didnt even know this was a del toro film until the end credits rolled. thought it was absolutely garbage. completely predictable, simplistic, generic, cliche, boring... not nearly hammed up enough to be eccentrically delicious yet too corny and hammy to be taken seriously. looked nice, 0 substance, actually painful to watch it felt so forced and pointlessly drab. i could have switched this film off at literally any point and not given a crap about what came next.

mark says it was more than a horror film... id say it was less than a horror film, if it had at least worked as a horror that would be something. what it reminded me of a lot was the more recent tim burton films where hes stopped being edgy weird tim burton with his signature strange and just started being a bit of a plastic toy impression of himself. everything that was boring and shite about burtons alice in wonderland was here tenfold and worse.

awful film, if it haddent been by del toro i struggle to believe people would actually rate it.