Sold as a horror movie but more a love story with a vague supernatural sub plot Crimson Peak stars Mia Wasikowska as Edith Cushing a writer obsessed with ghost stories ever since she believes she was visited by the spirit of her mother as a child. More interested into her literature than potential suitors it’s not until the mysterious Thomas Sharp (Tom Hiddleston) arrives along with this sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) that she allows anyone into her inner world. A turn of events lead to her heading back to England with Thomas who is now her husband and her new life in Allerdale Hall the Sharps family home where the ghost appearances begin for Edith once again. Allerdale Hall is a rundown house with locked doors, mysterious noises and long shadows on the walls and it’s only as Edith health starts to fade and she begins to search the deeper, darker areas of the house finding hints and clues to the real events occurring that she realises there is more to the situation than initially meets the eye.

What the movie lack in the stories substance it makes up for in its settings as director Guillermo del Toro sets up some beautifully filmed shots which ooze atmosphere and tension and it is his master class in directing which keeps you watching the constantly shifting blackness all across the screen, even in the innocent moments, for something to move or appear. There is very little light use and this all builds a gloomy and foreboding presence on screen.  The actors all do their respective parts well but the whole thing has a very Shakespearean feel of a play rather than a movie. The horror elements are not particularly scary and play second fiddle to the queries of the relationship triangle of Edith, Thomas and Lucille so the movie sometimes feels disjointed.

If you like suspenseful, atmospheric dramas with subplots of a love story then this will be right up your street and the movie settings look superb but for a movie supposedly tinged with horror and lurking danger it never felt scary or really filled with any form of suspense as the exposition is far too obvious and leaves nothing to the imagination so in the end it really became more of a thriller/drama.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10