Crimson Peak Review ★★★★★

The acting is strong throughout and, though Jessica Chastain’s English accent doesn’t quite cut glass, she makes a thrilling villainess. The crowning glory of this film, though, is its aesthetics. Kate Hawley’s costumes are exquisite; sumptuous velvets, outrageously overlarge shoulders and gorgeous colours. The production design is gloriously rococo; every surface is embellished, everything is fluted, or vaulted. It must have taken years. Thick red ooze runs down the walls, due to the red clay beneath the house (hence: Crimson Peak). Snowflakes fall daintily through the ruptured roof.

But that’s where it ends, for Crimson Peak. This visual feast lacks punch: the plot is a bit lame, a bit predictable. The film sags in the middle. Del Toro’s insistence on extreme violence, seen close up, felt shoved-in.

Pan’s Labyrinth was brilliant because of its originality. We wish del Toro had taken more risks with Crimson Peak. We were desperate for him to surprise us. Instead, we’re given something beautiful, generic and a touch soul-less.