Crimson Peak

For F*** Magazine

CRIMSON PEAK

Director : Guillermo del Toro

Cast : Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver, Doug Jones, Leslie Hope, Burn Gorman

Genre : Supernatural/Mystery

Run Time : 119 mins

Opens : 15 October 2015

Rating : NC16 (Some Violence)

Guillermo del Toro beckons you to enter Allerdale Hall. Dare you step through its foreboding gates? In this period horror flick, Mia Wasikowska plays Edith Cushing, a young author who falls headlong in love with the mysterious stranger Sir Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston). Sir Thomas comes from Cumberland, England to Buffalo, New York, accompanied by his sister Lady Lucille Sharpe (Chastain). After the tragic and sudden death of her father Carter (Beaver), Edith marries Thomas, while her childhood friend Dr. Alan McMichael (Hunnam) continues to harbour feelings for her. Alan begins to suspect that there is more to the siblings than meets the eye, as Edith is spirited away to Allerdale Hall, the ancestral home of Thomas and Lucille. Situated atop a clay mine, the mansion has fallen into disrepair, its walls hiding restless spirits and arcane secrets. Our heroine must unearth the mysteries buried in Allerdale Hall before it devours her whole. 

Director Guillermo del Toro has said that following the rough time he had making Mimic, he reserves his lyrical macabre fantasy horrors for his Spanish-language films, with most of his English-language movies being more accessible blockbusters. After cultivating a good working relationship with Legendary Pictures’ head honchos on Pacific Rim, del Toro was allowed to unleash his dark imagination in a big Hollywood movie with Crimson Peak. These days, horror movies seem to be predominantly low-budget affairs; found-footage movies proving especially popular with studios. Blumhouse has cornered the market with the Paranormal Activity franchise and its ilk. There is nothing inherently wrong with low-budget horror and there have been several excellent small movies in this genre. However, there is no denying that aficionados of classic horror have been hankering for a grand, lavish fright flick, and Crimson Peak should go a good way towards sating that appetite. 

Crimson Peak is a wholehearted throwback, with del Toro and screenwriter Matthew Robbins citing 1963’s The Haunting and 1961’s The Innocents as primary influences. It also owes a great debt to Edgar Allan Poe’s classic Gothic short story The Fall of the House of the Usher. Clockwork contraptions and dead insects, which the director has a particular fondness for, figure into the plot. The central setting of Allerdale Hall was constructed from scratch at Pinewood Toronto Studios in all its eerily dilapidated glory. Del Toro, production designer Thomas E. Sanders, art director Brandt Gordon and the rest of the film’s creative team can take a bow knowing that they have crafted such a sumptuous, spooky world. Placing the house atop a red clay mine is an inspired touch, allowing for the haunting imagery of the blood-red clay seeping into the snow above, hence the name “Crimson Peak”. The ghosts, rotting carcasses enrobed in wispy, black ether, are suitably grotesque and benefit from the physicality of performer Doug Jones, an oft-collaborator of del Toro’s.

The film is essentially a blood-drenched soap opera, theatrical, highly mannered and often quite arch. As such, del Toro runs the risk of the audience feeling like they are being held at arm’s length, unable to fully sink their teeth into the proceedings. There is very little subtlety to be had – for example, Edith announces upfront that in the story she’s writing, “The ghost is more a metaphor – for the past.” It is possible to step a little too far back and leave the realm of the story. Not entirely dissimilar from American Horror Story or Penny Dreadful, then. One does need to be in the right frame of mind to take in Crimson Peak and this reviewer did appreciate the theatricality; the lurid, saturated palette echoing Italian giallo horror films. In the cut that we watched, a sex scene was truncated, presumably to get an NC-16 instead of an M-18 rating. 

“We have scary ghosts, but even scarier people,” del Toro proclaimed while promoting the film at Comic-Con. A gorgeous set means nothing without a talented cast to inhabit it, so it’s a good thing then that this cast is very talented indeed. Wasikowska, who has played the “ethereal waif” fairly often in her career, is the ideal leading lady for this project. Emma Stone was originally cast, and Wasikowska does seem better-suited to the Edith part. This is a determined woman who would rather be Mary Shelley than Jane Austen, and the balance between strength and vulnerability is one that Wasikowska absolutely nails. She is the outsider who finds herself plunged into an unfamiliar, frightening world – it’s not a new character type in this genre, but Wasikowska does breathe new life into it. 

Hiddleston can play “enigmatically charming” in his sleep, and Sir Thomas Sharpe is enigmatically charming to the hilt. Replacing the initially-cast Benedict Cumberbatch, Hiddleston looks right at home in the period costumes and sets. There’s an immediately appealing warmth that he brings to the part while ensuring we’re still questioning his motives every step of the way. Chastain’s turn could have used a little more ambiguity, but her icily sinister Lady Lucille is threatening and beguiling all the same. Pacific Rim star Hunnam fares a little worse, playing the “nice guy” who lacks the edginess Hiddleston has and whom convention dictates won’t get the girl. He also doesn’t fit into the late-Victorian/early-Edwardian setting as well as his co-stars do. It is pretty fun to see Burn Gorman, also from Pacific Rim, pop up in a cameo.

Crimson Peak is the work of a director who is right in his element, given free rein to indulge his dark imagination and reaping rewarding results while at it. It does veer dangerously close to pastiche at times: Fernando Velázquez’s musical score is very on-the-nose, the climactic confrontation involves somewhat brandishing a giant shovel and there might be one too many uses of the iris wipe transition, which most audiences know best from Bugs Bunny going “th-th-that’s all folks!” However, more than enough of del Toro’s earnestness and adoration for classic horror comes through and the splendid production values are a treat amidst the sea of cheaply-made, grainy, shaky contemporary fright flicks. 

Summary: Guillermo del Toro delivers a handsome, stately horror film that is a throwback to the heyday of the haunted house subgenre, with no shortage of gruesome wince-inducing brutality for good measure.

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Pacific Rim

For F*** Magazine

PACIFIC RIM

2013

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Burn Gorman

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

            B-movie aficionados might recall a film called Robot Jox, an immensely cheesy sci-fi flick from 1990 in which territorial disputes in a post-apocalyptic wasteland are settled by way of giant robot gladiator fights. That film was overlooked upon release and hasn’t aged well. It’s a good thing then that today’s fanboys have something like Pacific Rim to devour. It’s giant robots vs. giant monsters, boasting high-quality production values and with geek icon Guillermo del Toro at the helm. Yeah, we’re up for that.

            Beasts from another realm, or kaiju, have arrived on earth through a portal far beneath the Pacific Ocean, ready to wreak havoc, each wave of attacks more vicious than the last. The nations of earth pool their resources to build “Jaegers”, giant mecha equipped to go toe-to-toe with the kaiju, controlled by two pilots who must be psychically linked to each other. Raleigh Becket (Hunnam) is a former Jaeger pilot called back into duty five years after being scarred, mentally and physically, in combat. He is eventually paired with Mako Mori (Kikuchi), an untested rookie who lost her family to a kaiju attack as a child. They, along with the other Jaeger pilots, answer to Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Elba), a no-nonsense military man who was one of the first Jaeger pilots. With the Jaeger program in danger of being decommissioned due to diminished results, the remaining pilots must make their last stand against the destructive creatures.

            There’s this pre-conceived notion of creature features being silly, quaint and low-rent affairs. After all, most of us would remember watching guys in rubber suits duke it out against the backdrop of an unconvincing model city in Tokusatsu films or TV shows (or 50s Hollywood B-movies). It is therefore extremely gratifying to see clashes between beast and machine so lovingly brought to life in an expensive A-picture. As children, we could only dream of robot/monster melees rendered with such conviction and quality. This is nostalgia made state-of-the-art; boyhood imagination made celluloid reality. It’s the kind of film that should be seen in the IMAX format and actually is really enjoyable in 3D, despite director Guillermo del Toro’s initial reluctance to convert the film into this format.

    
        Guillermo del Toro is something of a fanboy, and his passion and respect for anime, manga and Tokusatsu fuels the film and sets it apart from something like a Michael Bay-directed Transformers film. Del Toro is far more imaginative than your average action movie director and together with the creative team for this film has come up with some very arresting visuals and ideas. Sure, it might be hard to tell one kaiju from another and all the battles are rain-soaked and dimly lit, but del Toro has somehow managed to find a sweet point between “outlandish” and “awesome”, crafting many moments which make one want to leap out of the seat on an adrenaline rush.

            If you’re not in a particularly charitable mood, the plot could be described as “formulaic”: there’s the hero who must overcome a past trauma and rise to the occasion alongside a wide-eyed but equally-tormented rookie, unstoppable behemoths not of this earth, a “combat as foreplay” scene, the battle-hardened boss man who oversees the whole operation, comic relief scientists and tech guys, a cocky rival and a ticking clock. However, there are definitely times when canned food can taste absolutely delicious, and Guillermo del Toro has cooked up a storm. Clichés and stereotypes are in full effect (the Russian Jaeger pilots look like they stepped out of an 80s Cold War thriller) but somehow, this makes it all the more entertaining. Del Toro stated that he didn’t want to make a “super-brooding, super-dark, cynical summer movie” but deliver something more palatable in a throwback sort of way instead – and that he has.

            Given the above, the characters in Pacific Rim could well have felt pre-fabricated and cookie cutter, but they don’t and it is remarkably easy to root for them. Charlie Hunnam isn’t exactly a bankable marquee name and is best-known as the lead actor on TV’s Sons of Anarchy. He makes for a very sympathetic leading man and appears equally comfortable with the more dramatic moments and the action beats. Similarly, Rinko Kikuchi isn’t your typical Hollywood faux-action chick, her Mako Mori a vulnerable but competent character, and that helps set this apart from the rest of the “movies made for 12 year-old boys” pack.

            Idris Elba could well be the next Samuel L. Jackson as he steadily builds his repertoire of badass parts. The guy has presence to spare and there’s something inexplicably grin-inducing about hearing him bellow such lines as “do not let my calm demeanour fool you, ranger!” and, of course, that “we are cancelling the apocalypse” speech. It could well be irredeemably silly in the hands of another actor but man, he pulls it off. Charlie Day and Burn Gorman make for a funny, over-the-top double act as two rival scientists working on the Jaeger program (though they might border on grating for some) and del Toro oft-collaborator Ron Perlman threatens to steal the show as only he can, playing a black market dealer profiteering off kaiju remains, selling them as health products.

            Pacific Rim may be comprised of familiar elements and, depending on your mood, an eye roll-worthy bit or two, but the sheer exuberant, childlike energy that propels it forward makes everything else very easy to forgive. Guillermo del Toro’s enthusiasm for the material is infectious and with top-notch art direction, production design and visual effects work on show, this is escapism of a very polished sort. This is a love letter to the kaiju and mecha genres written in calligraphy on fancy paper. Japanese video game creator Hideo Kojima said it best when he remarked that he “never imagined (he) would be fortunate enough to see a film like this in (his) lifetime”.

SUMMARY: A better-made and more entertaining clash of the titans than the one with Sam Worthington in it. A giant robot using a container ship as a sword is what the fantasies of your inner 12 year-old are made of.

RATING: 4 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong