‘Crimson Peak’ performs weak
Ghosts, love, and scandal: “Crimson Peak” is a movie that tells an interesting story of jealousy, sibling bonds and a dark family past.
Based in the Victorian era, Edith Cushing has dreams of one day becoming a renowned author. Her stories are focused around a tragedy from her childhood—the loss of her mother at a relatively young age. She writes of ghosts, only to be told she should stick to writing romances; a much more suitable genre for a young lady.
Her childhood friend, Alan, is an aspiring doctor. When he returns from his schooling, a bit of tension as well as childhood fantasies spark between them.
But when an intriguing stranger, Thomas Sharpe, and his sister, Lucille, come to visit America, seeking to sell Thomas’ invention, Edith is captivated. Thomas has all the right things to say about her writing.
After only a few short days in America, Edith and Thomas apparently fall for each other like love at first sight.
Cheesy.
After the tragic death of her father and a proposal she apparently couldn’t resist (despite having known Thomas for only a few days), Edith is ushered off to England to live in an impressive mansion. Or it would be if the roof wasn’t caving in and the floorboards sinking into the ground.
She doesn’t follow the rules, just like every other person in a horror movie and it ends up getting her in trouble—go figure.
After Edith and Thomas spend a night away from the house in town (apparently an act that made Lucille angry), the entire storyline goes up in flames.
In the same day that Thomas and Edith return, Edith breaks even more rules, which causes her to discover a terrible secret (typical). Lucille tries to off her to conceal it, Thomas tries to save her, blah, blah, blah.
The bottom line is: the idea of the story had lots of potential. But through poor writing and poor directing, it became a rather large flop.
Let’s count the faults, shall we?
One: Thomas and Edith hit it off right away.
Two: Edith’s father bribes Thomas and Lucille to take off.
Three: Edith’s father gets murdered at the same time as Edith finds out Thomas hasn’t actually left and Thomas is there to comfort her when she confirms the body. Even though she’s known Alan far longer.
Four: Thomas is never in bed when Edith wakes up and needs him.
Five: Lucille is overly upset, as in angry, that Edith and Thomas stayed away from the house for only one night.
Six: Edith suddenly decides to break the rules and discovers a whole round of disturbing things—among them that the children were the cause of their mother’s death. (Uhm, hello? You already know the children were the only ones in the house when the mother died and she died with an axe in her head. I don’t think she dropped it there on her own).
Seven: Lucille is the bad guy. (Really??? I had no idea. She doesn’t act angry about Edith and Thomas or the fact that Edith is there or crazy at all really. She just acts perfectly normal. It’s such a shocker. NOT.)
Eight: In general, the climax moves way too fast. There’s almost no time for the viewer to take in what is happening, which sort of helps the shock factor at the end but that’s about it.
Nine: Almost everybody dies. Because of Lucille. (Well she’s obviously crazy throughout the whole movie, so . . .)
The whole movie wasn’t bad though, don’t misunderstand.
The idea for the story was good, it had a nice plot. It started out well and had several hidden facts at the end of the story. But it all happened too fast to try and cram the entire ending into that last 30 minutes of screen time.
Despite earning a 71 percent positive on RottenTomatoes.com, overall I would give “Crimson Peak” about 3/5 stars. Maybe 3.5/5, if it’s lucky.