Ghosts are real, says the movie’s heroine. These are the first words of the film.
So we are justified in expecting that the ghosts in “Crimson Peak” should be pretty good. Colorful, scary — haunting, you might say.
The funny thing is, the ghosts are the weakest point of this outlandish, wildly uneven horror picture. The director Guillermo del Toro, of “Pan’s Labyrinth” renown, has let his prodigious imagination loose on a serving of overbaked Victorian ham.
The lady who believes in ghosts is Edith (Mia Wasikowska), the mousy daughter of a wealthy New Yorker (Jim Beaver). Edith is writing a novel, but she doesn’t actually know much about life. She’s about to do some lurid research.
Swept off her feet by a dashing English baronet, Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston, late of the “Avengers” universe), Edith finds herself whisked away to England to settle into the Sharpe mansion. They will not be alone: Thomas’s clingy older sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain), also is in the house.
If Jessica Chastain seems a little overqualified for this kind of high-pitched horror, stick around. Lucille, a warm domestic presence in the spirit of the spooky housekeeper in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” gets her share of operatic moments.
This house is del Toro’s playground. Not only does it have locked rooms and creepy vats in the basement and a hole in the roof where the snow drifts in, but the soil that surrounds it is blood-red.
None of this is comforting to Edith. But it certainly photographs well.
Del Toro, the director of “Hellboy,” is really a fanboy, and he borrows a little from all the great horror classics as he crafts his visually lush take on a beloved genre.
“Crimson Peak” mixes the corset-tightening Gothic style of horror with a handful of jarringly violent scenes. These startling bits of gore feel like del Toro’s attempt to bring something new to the format.
I wish I liked the movie more. It is crazy and fun at times, but basically hollow. Except for Chastain, the actors (including Charlie Hunnam as Edith’s skeptical friend) play a single note, and the period trappings have a digital sheen to them.
Which brings us back to the ghosts. They are surprisingly standard-issue, computer-generated and wispy, with wisps of evil rising from them. They bare their teeth and make the same noises ghosts make in Japanese horror flicks, and their appearances are heralded by big music cues.
Shrug. “Crimson Peak” is a decent Halloween picture, but I expected more from del Toro.
“Crimson Peak” (2½ stars)
A naïve New Yorker (Mia Wasikowska) is whisked away to a crumbling mansion in England after she marries a dashing baronet (Tom Hiddleston). Complication: He has a spooky sister (Jessica Chastain) and the mansion is haunted. Director Guillermo del Toro mounts a visually lush Victorian shocker, a decent Halloween picture but hollow at the core.
Rating: R, for violence
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Cinnebarre, Everett Stadium, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Stanwood Cinemas, Pacific Place, Thornton Place, Woodinville, Cascade Mall.
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