Guillermo Del Toro to direct "Crimson Peak" (or not, you never know...)

[Serpico Jones]

I'm just hoping this makes money, so we can get Del Toro's Justice League Dark.

He's already said he's not going to do any superhero or action movies anymore.

 

[Matt Mortem]

I'm just hoping this makes money, so we can get Del Toro's Justice League Dark.

Nah. He's not doing that. Besides, I'd rather he stay out of the action movie/blockbuster territory anyway.

 

[redhawk23]

His films have substance its just that his english scripts for whatever reason arent all that good. A lot of emotions are overplayed, moments are too goofy, cheese crops up, and there is a general lack of polish.

Its mostly just a matter of the different kind of movies he has made in the different languages. He simply hasn't gone for quite the same kind of depth in his comic book and action films.

 

[TheVileOne]

His films have substance its just that his english scripts for whatever reason arent all that good. A lot of emotions are overplayed, moments are too goofy, cheese crops up, and there is a general lack of polish.

I really want him to go back to spanish cinema just to see if he improves. I want to believe that he just doesnt work well with the english languagr and doesnt work as well in hollywood . The only way to be sure is for him to go back to making small independent spanish films. Until then I wish he would hire script writers for his english films. He just needs someone that can polish his scripts. If he had that his english films would probably improve in a noticeable way.

Ill always love his sense of set direction and design tho. Its always a treat.

I would agree. I liked Crimson Peak, but I think Del Toro shows some of his cards a bit too early.

 

[Octoberist]

Yeah I think his writing in English is not very subtle. Nor is it very clever.

For example, I like Hellboy 2 but It's not as funny or witty as it think it is, especially during that singing scene.

 

[StarLord]

How long has GDT been using a cane? I watched a short clip from a 'Talks at Google: Crimson Peak' panel/interview thing and he came out with it.

Anyway, I might go and check this out at the weekend.

 

[Serpico Jones]

How long has GDT been using a cane? I watched a short clip from a 'Talks at Google: Crimson Peak' panel/interview thing and he came out with it.

Anyway, I might go and check this out at the weekend.

He's 50 years old and extremely fat so he probably needs a knee replacement.

 

[redhawk23]

Btw, there's been a lot of mis-reporting recently that Del Toro's next movie is a masked wrestler movie called Silva. While he did mention that project in the press, which is called Silver (people misunderstood his accent), that is not actually what he's working on.

Today on his twitter GDT clarified that his next film is English and is set to shoot next year.

 

[redhawk23]

I just returned from seeing the film. A few initial thoughts.

In the last few years, GDT has spoken of a desire to make an English language film more in line with what he has done in the Spanish language. Unfortunately, what this ended up producing was a somewhat lesser echo of The Devil's Backbone.

I do not mean to sound too negative. I enjoyed a lot of what the film has to offer. It is of course exquisitely designed and for the most part very well acted. The film has much more fleshed out characters than the archetype driven Pacific Rim and the plot offers quite a few decent turns.

Everything does however feel a little muted. The story and the characters are there but the emotion feels a little far off. In some ways this reflects a lot of my experience with Victorian-era literature which this movie obviously takes a lot from. Your mileage may vary. That said, despite the devious goings on and wonderfully constructed imagery, the film never quite builds the right sense of dread. I never feels heightened quite enough.

GDT has spoken of the house as a "killing jar" the way people used to kill butterflies to mount and frame. He goes very far with this metaphor, filling the film with butterfly imagery. Literally. There are butterflies and moths all over the place. There are some more subtle butterfly allusions that I quite liked, worked into the furniture and the flooring.

The ghosts in this film are few but I thought they were effectively brought to the screen. I could have done with a bit more of them, if only to take in more of their design but their presence makes sense. They are in fact used very similarly to the Ghosts in the Devil's backbone, reflecting GDT's philosophy of their use as metaphors. That said though it is in echoing The Devil's Backbone that this movie suffers.

The rest of this will be in spoiler tags.

Spoiler

The end of this movie more or less quotes the end monologue of the Devil's Backbone word for word and tries to repeat the end of that film. It does not work nearly as well as the older film had presented a much sadder story of characters with failed ambitions. Quoting it in the context of the murderious Sharpes just didn't carry the same impact.

More so, not only does the film's ending quote the Devil's Backbone, GDT has made the curious decision to directly reference the design of Santi, the child ghost from the Devil's Backbone.

Recently I just watched the special features on the Criterion release of that film. There is a featurette detailing the careful design work that went into Santi, with a lot of thought put into his specific color palate of white and rust as well as the broken porcelain pattern of his wound. In this film GDT completely rehashes the design! What was apparently designed with care to fit one story and to match the set design and palate of that film has been transposed to a very different character. Knowing GDT, he has very specific reasons for referencing his own self proclaimed favorite character but I have to say it just didn't seem to fit.

Overall, I'd give the film a solid 7/10. Its worth seeing and may serve as a good intro for someone less familiar with GDT's work.

 

[Octoberist]

@REDHAWK

That is so strange with some of the choices that GDT made. It makes the film less fresh.

 

[Octoberist]

How long has GDT been using a cane? I watched a short clip from a 'Talks at Google: Crimson Peak' panel/interview thing and he came out with it.

Anyway, I might go and check this out at the weekend.

He has a cane? Oh no.

When I met up while I was interning, I remember that he had to order a special lunch because he was on a diet.

 

[Matt Mortem]

The movie had pretty much all of the usual GDT problems, but the good far outweighs the bad. Stiff dialogue and weak plot/character stuff keeps it from being truly great, but goddamn is this movie fun to look at. Everything is so meticulously and perfectly designed. Wish the story and characters matched. Still, I'd see it again in a heartbeat.

 

[Marvolo]

I just returned from seeing the film. A few initial thoughts.

In the last few years, GDT has spoken of a desire to make an English language film more in line with what he has done in the Spanish language. Unfortunately, what this ended up producing was a somewhat lesser echo of The Devil's Backbone.

I do not mean to sound too negative. I enjoyed a lot of what the film has to offer. It is of course exquisitely designed and for the most part very well acted. The film has much more fleshed out characters than the archetype driven Pacific Rim and the plot offers quite a few decent turns.

Everything does however feel a little muted. The story and the characters are there but the emotion feels a little far off. In some ways this reflects a lot of my experience with Victorian-era literature which this movie obviously takes a lot from. Your mileage may vary. That said, despite the devious goings on and wonderfully constructed imagery, the film never quite builds the right sense of dread. I never feels heightened quite enough.

GDT has spoken of the house as a "killing jar" the way people used to kill butterflies to mount and frame. He goes very far with this metaphor, filling the film with butterfly imagery. Literally. There are butterflies and moths all over the place. There are some more subtle butterfly allusions that I quite liked, worked into the furniture and the flooring.

The ghosts in this film are few but I thought they were effectively brought to the screen. I could have done with a bit more of them, if only to take in more of their design but their presence makes sense. They are in fact used very similarly to the Ghosts in the Devil's backbone, reflecting GDT's philosophy of their use as metaphors. That said though it is in echoing The Devil's Backbone that this movie suffers.

The rest of this will be in spoiler tags.

Spoiler

The end of this movie more or less quotes the end monologue of the Devil's Backbone word for word and tries to repeat the end of that film. It does not work nearly as well as the older film had presented a much sadder story of characters with failed ambitions. Quoting it in the context of the murderious Sharpes just didn't carry the same impact.

More so, not only does the film's ending quote the Devil's Backbone, GDT has made the curious decision to directly reference the design of Santi, the child ghost from the Devil's Backbone.

Recently I just watched the special features on the Criterion release of that film. There is a featurette detailing the careful design work that went into Santi, with a lot of thought put into his specific color palate of white and rust as well as the broken porcelain pattern of his wound. In this film GDT completely rehashes the design! What was apparently designed with care to fit one story and to match the set design and palate of that film has been transposed to a very different character. Knowing GDT, he has very specific reasons for referencing his own self proclaimed favorite character but I have to say it just didn't seem to fit.

Overall, I'd give the film a solid 7/10. Its worth seeing and may serve as a good intro for someone less familiar with GDT's work.

Mama (a film produced by GDT) also had moths popping up throughout the film. I noticed he included them in this film and its got me thinking he just likes them.

Thanks for the review, and Im glad you enjoyed it despite its flaws.

 

[Silvermoth]

I saw it today. I really loved it! It's such a beautiful film and genuinely creepy as well. I'm shocked they got so many of the period details so well! The set design and cinematography is amazing and the actress who plays lucille is incredible. Better than hiddleston IMO (although his ass was quite nice. Not sure if it was a stunt double but whatever).

Definitely worth checking out IMO especially around Halloween time

Edit: holy crap the actress who played lucille was jess chastain! Isn't she amazing? Didn't even know it was her. That's acting, is what that is

 

[Asr]

Saw this today too, very good atmospherically with a properly creepy vibe throughout, but like redhawk23 pointed out, I too felt it didn't really build the right sense of dread. IMO, the first "ghost" scene killed a major part of the recurring tension [blackout]once it's revealed that the ghost is just Edith's dead mom giving her a message, and after that those scenes just felt like "oh it's just Edith's dead mom again".[/blackout] Honestly the most recent horror movies I've seen that exuded more "scare/dread" factor were Insidious 3 and The Conjuring—both of those put me on edge more than Crimson Peak did, and in a sense just felt more malevolent.

That said, the movie was crafted quite well otherwise (plot & characters notwithstanding, anyway). It was so soaked in atmosphere and a perfectly Victorian-style world that I was actually more absorbed by the first part of the movie set in NY. I especially liked how this movie pretty much just took its time and immersed you as the viewer back in the Victorian era. The costuming, art direction, and cinematography were all on point and made it so much more convincing than any other movies I've seen set back in that time period.

The latter part of the movie which moved to England wasn't quite as compelling for me but it still remained glorious to watch visually with the shadowy interiors, the red clay, and the snow at the end (and the sound & music were also really done well too).

Overall would probably rate it around 7.5/10—definitely a "good" movie to watch, especially this time of year, but not a great one that should go down in the history books. Had a lot of potential that could've made it great but just wasn't there.

Oh and this movie should definitely appease Hiddleston's female fans btw—no matter what he was doing, he was either charismatic or just magnetic to watch otherwise (and yeah, he did have a butt shot too, along with a very brief sex scene). Charlie Hunnam had a bit part too, but didn't really do much. As for Jessica Chastain, she was awesome and pretty much chewed scenery, and IMO looked hotter at the end when her character's hinges finally came off. The more dirt & bruises there were on her face, the hotter she looked.

Forgot to add: the horror movie I'm really looking forward to seeing next is Krampus after seeing the trailer in front of CP. Looks like it'd be a ton of fun to watch, hope it delivers. (The audience I was with seemed to really get a kick out of it too, I have a feeling it could pull quite the box office!)

 

[Faora]

Jessica Chastain in movie just amazing. Magnificent role).

 

[Marvolo]

Saw this today too, very good atmospherically with a properly creepy vibe throughout, but like redhawk23 pointed out, I too felt it didn't really build the right sense of dread. IMO, the first "ghost" scene killed a major part of the recurring tension [blackout]once it's revealed that the ghost is just Edith's dead mom giving her a message, and after that those scenes just felt like "oh it's just Edith's dead mom again".[/blackout] Honestly the most recent horror movies I've seen that exuded more "scare/dread" factor were Insidious 3 and The Conjuring—both of those put me on edge more than Crimson Peak did, and in a sense just felt more malevolent.

That said, the movie was crafted quite well otherwise (plot & characters notwithstanding, anyway). It was so soaked in atmosphere and a perfectly Victorian-style world that I was actually more absorbed by the first part of the movie set in NY. I especially liked how this movie pretty much just took its time and immersed you as the viewer back in the Victorian era. The costuming, art direction, and cinematography were all on point and made it so much more convincing than any other movies I've seen set back in that time period.

The latter part of the movie which moved to England wasn't quite as compelling for me but it still remained glorious to watch visually with the shadowy interiors, the red clay, and the snow at the end (and the sound & music were also really done well too).

Overall would probably rate it around 7.5/10—definitely a "good" movie to watch, especially this time of year, but not a great one that should go down in the history books. Had a lot of potential that could've made it great but just wasn't there.

Oh and this movie should definitely appease Hiddleston's female fans btw—no matter what he was doing, he was either charismatic or just magnetic to watch otherwise (and yeah, he did have a butt shot too, along with a very brief sex scene). Charlie Hunnam had a bit part too, but didn't really do much. As for Jessica Chastain, she was awesome and pretty much chewed scenery, and IMO looked hotter at the end when her character's hinges finally came off. The more dirt & bruises there were on her face, the hotter she looked.

Forgot to add: the horror movie I'm really looking forward to seeing next is Krampus after seeing the trailer in front of CP. Looks like it'd be a ton of fun to watch, hope it delivers. (The audience I was with seemed to really get a kick out of it too, I have a feeling it could pull quite the box office!)

About your blacked out bit, none of the ghosts at Crimson Peak are Edith's mom.

 

[Matt Mortem]

Spoiler

The trouble with the story is if you remove the ghosts, it's the same story. They should have had more weight in the plot.

 

[terry78]

Basically they're there as a tutorial for the main character. And yeah, Chastain put it down in this role. I want her in DC or MCU as somebody dammit.

 

[Marvolo]

Spoiler

The trouble with the story is if you remove the ghosts, it's the same story. They should have had more weight in the plot.

"Its not a ghost story. Its a story that has a ghost in it."

 

[Silvermoth]

Spoiler

The trouble with the story is if you remove the ghosts, it's the same story. They should have had more weight in the plot.

Spoiler

the ghosts are a metaphor

 

[CB Fan]

Looking forward to this looks like fun.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Chastain is far and away the best thing about this movie; her rampage at the end is terrific. The ghosts aren't nearly as scary by comparison.

I thought the production design went overboard; the house feels more like a parody of a haunted house, it's just too much.

 

[chaseter]

This was so boring and predictable. It felt like a cookie cutter story with Del Toro set design. The huge problem is the buildup to the mansion and instead of making it a character, Del Toro spent more time explaining the red sludge business. We see like 4-5 rooms in that huge creepy house and the ghosts are woefully undreadful. The story could have been set in 2015 and it wouldn't have mattered. Whomever said this is all style and no substance hit the nail on the head. Del Toro is one of my favorite directors but the man is slipping after each movie it seems. I feel bad for him because I know he's passionate and he's the nicest dude ever.

 

[Boom]

So can someone explain the [blackout]baby[/blackout] to me?

[blackout]It was actually Lucille's baby but one of Thomas' wives said they'd take care of it?[/blackout] Or something?

Kinda confused me and my girlfriend.