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

[terry78]

Raimi still has it. Drag Me To Hell is a classic horror film to me. It took so much from a lot of old school horror film and short stories.

 

[Matt Mortem]

Raimi still has it. Drag Me To Hell is a classic horror film to me. It took so much from a lot of old school horror film and short stories.

Eh I gotta disagree. Drag Me To Hell just didn't work for me on any level. I was bored the whole time.

 

[Boom]

Eh I gotta disagree. Drag Me To Hell just didn't work for me on any level. I was bored the whole time.

I rented it on Amazon Prime. Got about half-way through it and turned it off. Never finished it.

 

[Boom]

Part two is up, but can't link cause of language. His quote about directing is priceless.

He also spoke about being really depressed about Mountains of Madness.

Here's the thing.

Save for one or two moments in the novella, At the Mountains of Madness isn't very horrific in a graphic sense. The story is all about suspense and dread, and the horror comes from suggestion and implication. The simple truth of it is a faithful adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness wouldn't require an R rating. A hard PG-13? Sure. But Rated R? Not an absolute necessity.

He wouldn't have a problem making this movie if he would just reconcile that point.

 

[Lord]

Drag Me to Hell was fun, not particularly scary but fun.

 

[redhawk23]

Here's the thing.

Save for one or two moments in the novella, At the Mountains of Madness isn't very horrific in a graphic sense. The story is all about suspense and dread, and the horror comes from suggestion and implication. The simple truth of it is a faithful adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness wouldn't require an R rating. A hard PG-13? Sure. But Rated R? Not an absolute necessity.

He wouldn't have a problem making this movie if he would just reconcile that point.

And yet has he ever said he intended to be particularly faithful to the text?

Also, the MPAA only allows for a certain amount of supsense even in PG 13 movies. Both The Conjuring and the Del Toro porduced Don't Be Afraid of the Dark receieved R ratings despite outright aiming for PG 13.

 

[redhawk23]

There are a few negative comments saying the plot is a bit thin but a lot of the negative reviews complain that it isn't scary enough for a horror film.

There are a lot of expectations that are not going to be fulfilled by the actual movie.

 

[redhawk23]

The only problem with horror today is the reliance on gore and the lack of emotional investment in any characters - stuff that has always been a problem for this genre since the 70's and 80's. There are plenty of examples of horror being perfectly fine in this era, and any critic insisting otherwise is only focusing on the mainstream commercial stuff and not independent films, and isn't a real critic.

I think the 90's were the worst decade ever for the horror genre. It's gotten waaay better since then. The 90's consisted of zero atmosphere, a focus on teenage high school angst, crappy and forgettable scores, crappy soundtracks with bands like Creed... It was just generally awful. Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, Valentine... It was just a total bummer of a decade. It wasn't until the decade was wrapping up in '99 that we got Sixth Sense and Blair Witch.

I think 2000-2015 has given us some of the best horror movies EVER, easily. But the 70's and 80's are still the two best decades, in my opinion. That whole era of Stephen King, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Clive Barker, Sam Raimi, George A. Romero, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci... we'll never get a revolutionary group like that ever again. That was like a nuclear bomb of creativity went off in the film industry.

With very few exceptions most of the best horror films since the late 70s onwards have had their start as independent films or from very small studios.

Right now with far more avenues of distribution, there are many quality horror films coming out various film festivals. They just don't get very wide theatrical releases.

 

[Marvolo]

There are a few negative comments saying the plot is a bit thin but a lot of the negative reviews complain that it isn't scary enough for a horror film.

There are a lot of expectations that are not going to be fulfilled by the actual movie.

Yep. The marketing really played up the horror angle, but Del Toro seemed to describe the film as a "gothic romance". Not the usual horror schlock people expect these days. Its understandable that the studio would want to promote it as a horror film instead of gothic romance, but thats guaranteeing more than few veiwers are going in with the wrong expectations.

 

[Marvolo]

Here is a bit of what Variety had to say:

Even the pristine white snow bleeds bright scarlet in “Crimson Peak,” the malformed love child between a richly atmospheric gothic romance and an overripe Italian giallo — delivered into this world by the mad doctor himself, horror maestro Guillermo del Toro, operating at his most stylistically unhinged. Aflame with color and awash in symbolism, this undeniably ravishing yet ultimately disappointing haunted-house meller is all surface and no substance, sinking under the weight of its own self-importance into the sanguine muck below. Named after the estate to which Mia Wasikowska’s newly orphaned and even newlier-wed heroine unwisely relocates with a plainly duplicitous brother-sister pair, “Crimson Peak” proves too frou-frou for genre fans, too gory for the Harlequin crowd and all-around too obvious for anyone pressed to guess what the siblings’ dark secret could possibly be, and will likely wind up an in-the-red setback to Universal’s most profitable year.

http://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/crimson-peak-film-review-1201613988/

 

[redhawk23]

Del Toro really seems to be doubling down on what he and Curon both refer to as "eye protein."

Del Toro in particular is really keen on presenting shifts and attitude and character through colors and aesthetics more than through dialogue or even actions. It can be a bit of an odd choice and leave his characters feeling a bit thin.

Its something he's done more or less since The Devil's Backbone but its become more of a focus, possibly due to having more money for costume and production design.

Also as to Variety's last comment, Universal apparently pulled all their funds from the movie. That said, at 55 million, I think Legendary will eventually make their money back.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Del Toro is slowly losing me as a fan. Hated Hellboy 2 and Pacific Rim and this film Crimson Peak, no matter how much I want it to, just doesn't look interesting enough to me.

 

[Rocketman]

I want to see him do:

At the Mountains of Madness
Frankenstein
The Call of Cthulhu
Dracula
Jekyll and Hyde

It's all up his alley.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

I was initially going to check this out on Sunday but honestly the reviews have left me feeling no enthusiasm towards seeing it. It sounds like it has turned out to not be the film it probably should have been. I'm all for style, but it sounds like the style does not make up for the rest of what the film has to offer.

 

[Marvolo]

Im going to watch it Friday on a BigD screen.

Does anyone know if Del Toro shot this film in 1.85, or did he opt for 2.35:1?

 

[redhawk23]

I was initially going to check this out on Sunday but honestly the reviews have left me feeling no enthusiasm towards seeing it. It sounds like it has turned out to not be the film it probably should have been. I'm all for style, but it sounds like the style does not make up for the rest of what the film has to offer.

It just seems like a gross misunderstanding of the way GDT tells his stories.

 

[Serpico Jones]

His movies have become all style and no substance. He hasn't made a film that I've liked since Pan's Labyrinth. Hellboy 2 was too goofy and melodramatic, Pacific Rim sucked and the Strain is awful.

 

[Octoberist]

I hate to say it but The Strain is probably one of the most uneven shows on TV. It's almost unwatchable.

 

[Roose Bolton]

How much of that is on GDT though? As far as I'm aware his only direct involvement is advising on casting, directing the odd prologue scene here and there and occasionally doing second unit work.

 

[Octoberist]

It keeps the tone and writing style of the pilot, which was co-written and directed by GDT, which was..so hammy. Hammy in a bad way. The show has gotten better but it..I don't wanna hate watch it.

 

[Marvolo]

His movies have become all style and no substance. He hasn't made a film that I've liked since Pan's Labyrinth. Hellboy 2 was too goofy and melodramatic, Pacific Rim sucked and the Strain is awful.

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.

 

[Black Narcissus]

I would pay money to visit his monster house.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/07/movies/11guillermodeltoro-house.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur&_r=0

 

[Lord]

His english films were definitely a factor in him having his skills strong enough to handle Pan's Labyrinth, without Blade II and Hellboy, i doubt he would have been as successful. Anyway, Pacific Rim's point was being over the top and unapologetic "blockbuster fun", it honestly worked well, and even though it wasn't a film meant for subtleties, Mako's character was offered some subtler moments.

Del Toro's next film is going to be smaller budgeted, so i don't mind him staying in Hollywood, i actualy hope he stays there for longer, so far it seems to have helped him get progressively better at Directing, this way he can more easily do whatever he wants with his spanish films. The thing with Del Toro in Hollywood is that he has unfortunately not worked on an easy success franchise, he almost did the Hobbit films, which would have made him a much more influential individual, he turned down offers to Direct the Harry Potter films multiple times, even though he was aparently a fan, and he turned Chronicles of Narnia down due to Pan's Labyrinth.

 

[rnewbz]

Got an early screening. My review: http://newbyfadeto.blogspot.com/2015/10/crimson-peak-review.html

 

[Assassin32]

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