Crimson Peak (2015) - review + mini analysis

If you loved the newest release from director Guillermo Del Toro, Frankenstein on Netflix, I can't recommend enough that you check out some of his other films that have very similar vibes and themes. In my review of Frankenstein (2025), I had mentioned a few other installments of Del Toro's filmography such as Crimson Peak and Pan's Labyrinth, which are two of my favorites, and I mentioned how through these gothic/fantasy horror films, Del Toro explores different themes of death. In Frankenstein it was life in relation to death and in Crimson Peak, which I'll be talking about today, it's themes of love in relation to death.

Crimson Peak came out in 2015 and was one of the most notable pieces in Del Toro's filmography once it hit the screen. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, and Jesica Chastain, the film centers around a young American woman named Edith, in the 1800's who loves to write and is fascinated by ghosts. Her father, a central figure in her life, meets the Baronette Thomas Sharpe looking for funding for an invention of his. Edith runs into Thomas in her father's office where he briefly reads her unpublished manuscript and Edith seems a little smitten. Their love begins to flourish and after a whimsical night at a ball when Edith meets Thomas' sister Lucille, things begin to change and move along quite rapidly. There are some drama elements, ghosts and spooks of course, and some immaculate set and production design to be sure!

This is one of my comfort films and possibly one of my favorites ever of any genre because of the immaculate production design, the mix of love and horror and the visual effects and the score is insane, composed by Fernando Valazquez. I love the partial change of setting for gothic horror films of this sort from what we usually see in a European area to Buffalo New York in the USA during the same time period. I love that we begin the story in the USA along with Edith and as she travels to England to a remote mansion that becomes her home, we feel uneasy like she does and unfamiliar like she does and that really helps to drive the immersive-ness of this story. Throughout the film we find things out as Edith does and there's barely any exposition and the story doesn't need much exposition for the audience to understand what's going on and who is who.

The costumes in this film are breathtaking and Del Toro adds in some elements of whimsy and weirdness and my favorite detail that comes to mind when I think about the costumes in this film is one of Edith's earlier outfits in the film has a belt that's two hands clasped around her waist and I think that detail is incredibly fun and weird in the best way! The rest of the outfits are so fun as well and I love that Edith wears a lot of lighter colors to show off her innocent nature while Lucille and Thomas wear primarily darker colors, the brightest colored outfit Lucille wears is a blood red dress early on in the film. Edith wears a lot of white and yellow, and not to be biased but yellow's my favorite color so I love to see any character in a film wearing it, and it shows her youth and innocence in a way that exposition dumps can't do effectively. We know right from the start that Edith is young, and she has limited knowledge of the world but she's not stupid. She's smart but she is dealing with things in this film that are new to her, and these things are hard issues to navigate for anyone let alone a young woman who's been relatively sheltered in her life and education.

Tom Hiddleston is a well-known fan favorite actor starting mainly in his era when he played Loki in the Marvel films and I never got the hype in all honesty but in this period drama with horror elements really made the charm come out and when I'm watching this film I kinda get it. Tom Hiddleston's character is supposed to be charming and be a gentleman and he's really in his element in this film. I cannot recall if I've mentioned this before but Jessica Chastain in any movie, horror or not, freaks me out. I can't describe how or why but she terrifies me. Her cold and unfeeling character of Lucielle in this film is haunting, and I hate it but in a good way. Lucielle is scary and cold not to just to Edith but to the audience too in a way that doesn't break the fourth wall but it scary to watch, nonetheless.

The story, much like all of Del Toro's stories, gets more and more tragic as time goes on and leaves you on an open note. There's so much that closes the story at the end but there's one glaring thing that remains unclosed. This one is much like Frankenstein's ending that's very tragic but also hopeful which makes the conversations about death that the films pride themselves on, much more interesting to think about after the film is over but also on rewatches. Even though there are twists and unexpected parts of the plot, each Del Toro film has details that you can rewatch over and over again and not get bored with the film. Crimson Peak is absolutely no different. I've rewatched this film countless times and I can never seem to get bored with it.

I can't help myself from getting into spoilers so stop scrolling here if you'd like to watch Crimson Peak first before finishing this review/analysis.

Crimson Peak poster - Universal Studios distribution 2015

There are many twists in this film and sometimes that makes a film really stupid feeling or makes the story feel really cheap and it make sit not worth a rewatch but in this film, the twists are uncovered gradually which makes them feel more earned and like we are learning about things along with Edith because I mentioned earlier that Edith is not stupid. Everyone around her thinks she is since she's young and innocent and she is young and innocent but very literate and worldly. She discovers that Lucielle is gradually poisoning her after Lucielle is trying to hide things around the house form Edith even though its Edith's home now after she marries Thomas. Edith then finds out that Thomas has had multiple wives all from wealthy and vulnerable backgrounds and then discovers that they were all killed or poisoned. Then Edith finds out that Thomas and Lucielle have a sexually intimate relationship, and she finds all that out on her own. She's not portrayed as physically strong in this film, but she can take care of herself, and Lucielle is really good about keeping secrets, she doesn't let up or slip up around Edith when it comes to their plans for Edith.

I also like the spectrum of the three main characters from Edith being the ultimate good and pure character to Lucielle being the wicked and evil side of the spectrum and I like that Thomas is in the middle, and you can see the character growth in the film. Thomas starts out looking for a wealthy, stupid, young girl to marry to later kill with Lucielle's help to get her money. He turns on the extra charm and appears to be smitten with Edith and seems to genuinely want to marry her and it's not until a rewatch and after you know the plan they have that you know it's all false because it's convincing to everyone. We watch this story through Edith's eyes, we see Thomas as this amazing and charming gentleman who wants to marry Edith and loves her and as Edith moves through the journey, we feel what she feels and learn what she learns and we're shocked when Edith's shocked. So, when we see her interact with Thomas, he seems genuine and we find out that most of his passion and love for Edith is fake but for the most part it isn't. He genuinely likes Edith and maybe we could even call it love but he's complicated, and he does have feelings for Lucielle but when Edith came along, it changed his mind or at least something seemed to shift in Thomas to think about Lucielle differently than he had all because of Edith.

This little arc of Thomas' character makes his death a little more tragic to watch. We know Thomas had a change of heart and we know that Thomas wanted Edith to live and he wanted to stay with her and when Lucielle has a stark reaction to this realization that change is coming, she stabs him repeatedly and what hurts the most about this is that we know Edith still has feelings for Thomas and she doesn't know that he died. Edith isn't in the room when Thomas dies and that's heartbreaking and in the last scene of the film, she sees Thomas' ghost come to her after Edith has to kill Lucielle. She gently touches his face and he disappears and this is how Edith realizes Thomas is dead. Thomas was trying to protect her in the way he knew was going to be hard and that to me is really telling that he actually loved Edith.

The last thing I want to talk about is the color of ghosts in this film. There are three different colors that I noticed in this film, Black, Red and White. I think that each color represents how someone died. Black ghosts, like Edith's mother's ghost, I think are black people who passed away naturally as in from natural causes not associated with murder. Edith's mother passed away from an illness, not murder. So, Edith's mother's ghost is a black color like a funeral processional may be. Red is an easy color to explain and it's anyone who was killed through violence and/or anger. Lucielle's ghost in the ending of the film is red as Edith killed her with anger, Enola and the other former wives of Thomas, were all killed by Lucielle through poison or other violence. The baby's ghost that is later to be revealed as Thomas and Lucielle's child, was also killed through violent means. Thomas' ghost is the only white ghost we see in the film, and I think that's because, while he was killed by Lucielle through violent means, she killed him out of love for him and he died because of his love for Edith. So to me, white ghosts were killed out of or for love.

I think you know my rating of this film is going to be pretty high just based on my analysis and my initial non-spoiler section, but this is one of the rare films I'm going to give a 10/10