New Gothic Movie Review: Crimson Peak

As you know, I adore Gothic literature. Anne Radcliffe, Jane Austen, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, and the new Gothic offerings of this generation of writers.  

Finding a Gothic Movie that's worth watching is another matter.  There are a lot of bad ones. 

I recently watched Crimson Peak, a new Gothic tale starring Tom Hiddleston (Loki), and Mia Wasikowski (Jane Eyre, Alice in Wonderland).  I missed it in the theater, and bought it a while back, but never managed to get around to watching it. I had bought season six of Downton Abbey along with this one, so of course I watched Downton first.

All I can say is  . . . . wow!  This is what a Gothic flick should be. 

The elements were all there, mysterious, dangerous love interest (Hiddleston), and the spooky, isolated home with an intriguing atmosphere that will bring chills---literally, as there is constantly snow or rain falling through the roof. Brrr.  You feel cold just watching Edith (Wasikowski) trying to find warmth in this odd and ill maintained Gothic mansion. Add to that the constant uncertainty about what is actually happening, the many ghostly appearances to Edith at the old manor, and the odd relationship between brother and sister, and you're kept on the edge of your seat. Something is very wrong at Allendale Estates, but you aren't sure what. The plot, and the danger is slowly revealed with very subtle and clever clues.

The story starts with Edith as a rich girl in America who wants to be a writer. It's about 1880. She's born into a wealthy home. Her father is a businessman and worked his way up from nothing, no silver spoon in his mouth. He's successful, and Edith lives in luxury in his well maintained, well staffed manor house.  Edith tells us in the opening segment that "Ghosts are real!"

She then goes on to share her one encounter with a ghost, her mother's ghost, after her mother's funeral. She was just a little girl when this occurred, and it's creepy scary. Mom appears, but in a state of decay, not the pretty type of ghosts we usually see. And this is where this movie is so unique for a Gothic Horror Romance.  The ghosts are UGLY, creepy and gross. They are scary because they are so ugly, they reflect their physical form, as in badly decayed and decomposed. But, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Back to Edith, and the opening. After we are introduced to her world, rich girl, mother is dead, daddy is rich, we learn that she doesn't just want to go to dances like other young women her age and see and be seen. No, Edith has a passion, a dream. She wants to be a writer. She's written a manuscript, a ghost story, and her father arranges for her to see a publisher with it.  She goes, and is turned away, as the old gentleman suggests maybe she should write a romance, instead. Edith sighs and leaves, but continues to work on her manuscript at home.

She has a childhood friend who is a doctor, and he's sweet on her. She doesn't see him as anything but a friend, to his chagrin. A handsome stranger from England comes to her father's company asking for a loan, for support in an invention for mining that he needs backing for. This man is a baronet, Sir Thomas Sharpe. He charms Edith, and after a few meetings, he wants to marry her. But Daddy interferes, and then Daddy dies mysteriously.

Edith marries Sir Thomas, and goes to England to live at his estate. When you see the house, you'll be struck dumb with amazement!  The movie crew built this house just for the movie. It's not a movie set, its a bonafide Victorian mansion, complete with working bathrooms and an elevator. It's very, very Gothic!  Atmospheric as you've never encountered before. The house has a distinct personality.  As I said before, it's in disrepair. So our heroine, Edith, goes from a cozy mansion that is well maintained to a shoddy mansion where the roof is open and the weather actually comes in. Rain, snow, and what appears at times to be soot. Sir Thomas owns a mine, and the earth around his home is blood red. It's clay. The locals call the place Crimson Peak in the winter, as the red clay bleeds through the snow, giving the landscape an eerie feel. Blood red. There's a metaphor there.

Of course, Sir Thomas and his sister, Lucille, are hiding something sinister there at the old manor. They are the only ones at the home, aside from Edith. Strangely, there are no servants at the house, at least none shown in the movie, aside from Finlay, the outside servant. Lucille, the sister, is cold and distant. She constantly is making Edith tea, however, and after a while, you get a little creeped out by that. A little too eager to hand over a cup a tea whenever Edith is upset.

There is plenty to be upset about, by the way. Edith is in a strange land. Well, England, but this version of England is anything but welcoming. The landscape around the estate is stark. Nothing much grows, due to the red clay.  She's in a big, big house that is empty, save her husband and his sister, and the house is falling apart. It seems to be sinking slowly into the earth, a nod to Poe's Fall of the House of Usher here. The house actually groans at times, and pipes rattle. Edith is rattled. She can't put her finger on what is wrong with the place, or her new family. And then there are the ghosts who pop up and try to warn her. At least, after a while she and you will realize that's what they are doing. At first it seems they are just trying to scare her.

And make no mistake, Edith is in grave danger. Is it the house that is trying to harm her? Sir Thomas, who seems genuinely enthralled with her but has a deeper motivation for marrying her than love? Or is it that demented sister of his? Something is very wrong in this place, and if you love atmospheric Gothic Suspense and horror, you'll be thrilled.  As all good Heroines in Gothic Stories, Edith starts to investigate her surroundings, in secret, of course. She travels the dark corridors with candlestick in hand, fearful but determined to make sense of her situation.

Silver Lining;  Edith's childhood friend, the doctor, is suspicious over her father's death, and decides to investigate. We are told in an early segment that he likes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works, as in Sherlock Holmes. Will he arrive in time to save Edith from the horrors of Crimson Peak?

My rating:  A+.  There is so much to love about this flick!  Good storyline that is NOT too obvious. You'll be struggling to put together the pieces here, like a good mystery.  Stellar cast, EPIC setting and filming, and some pretty scary and creepy ghosts to keep you jumping out of your seat. Destined to become a classic.

If you'd like to see some to the set images, click the link below:

Image Gallery for the Movie Crimson Peak http://collider.com/crimson-peak-images/

Video Trailer:

The Highwayman Came Riding . . . Riding . . .

 

Image credit: Highwayman by Heywoody purchased at 123RF Stock Photo

If you've never read the narrative poem "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes, published in 1906, you've missed a truly romantic story.  The Highwayman and Bess, the Innkeeper's daughter, have a thing going. They meet late at night. He stops by on horseback, knocks on her window, and she leans out. They talk, they kiss, and her lovely long dark hair caresses his face. But, with any story, there is conflict. The Highwayman is a wanted man, because he is in reality a thief. Soldiers come, they set up camp at the Inn, they use Bess as bait to lure him to the trap, she kills herself, using the gun shot and the flash of the powder to warn him and he escapes. The next morning he hears the news, how the lovely Bess killed herself to save her love from the soldiers waiting for him at her home. He's so full of grief at the loss of his love, what does he do? Why, he heads back towards the soldiers and has it out with them, going down in a bloody fight to avenge his true love's death.

The beauty of this romantic story,aside from the Romeo and Juliet storyline, is that it doesn't end there.
The ghost of the highwayman comes riding down the lane, stops and the inn, and knocks on the window. And who's to say a Ghostly Bess doesn't answer his romantic knock?

The poem is in the Public Domain, as it was published before 1923.
So, dear reader, savor it for yourself. The original poem is far better than any retelling;

The Highwayman, by Alfred Noyes: Part I  (Part Two will be in the next Post)

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

 He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

 Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,    
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.


And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

 "One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way."

 He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.

 He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—Marching—marching—
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.


In Part two, to be featured in the next Post, Bess is confronted with a horrifying reality as the soldiers lay a trap for her lover as she remembers her love saying at their last parting:

"Watch for me by moonlight; 
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way!"

Ah, lovely, tragic and romantic.  When I first heard this beautiful poem, it was being quoted in a movie; Anne of Green Gables. Anne, as a young woman, was at a literary event in someone's parlor, and with her usual dramatic flair, quoted the entire poem with verve and panche. Being a romantic, I was instantly intrigued. On a trip to the library, I found a lovely children's book that illustrated the poem verse by verse, with Bess, the Landlord's daughter and her long dark hair, the highwayman dressed as a romantic hero, and of course the redcoats and the tragedy that follows.

In the years since my first introduction to the highwayman, romance novelists have used this iconic image time and again, painting him to be the romantic hero, the valiant, wronged man fighting for personal vengeance, for the greater good, for true love, for king and country, you name it, the highwayman in romantic fiction novels has done it all. In my own recently published work, Some Enchanted Waltz
I have featured a masked highwayman of sorts who is fighting for his country as a member of the United Irishman, circa 1798, and who gallantly rescues a woman from British soldiers.

The idea of a masked highwayman of another age is appealing for many reasons, the masked man slipping about in the night, dressed in black. A dangerous man, a man outside the law, a man able to sweep a woman away in the darkness, either kidnapping her or rescuing her, depending on your fantasies.

A beautiful musical rendition of The Highwayman is by Lorena McKennitt, on her  Book of Secrets CD. It is truly haunting when sung by McKennitt accompanied by music.
Enjoy it on YouTube

Authors Note: All photographs you find on this blog site (excluding movie screen shots) have been purchased as royalty free images by the following stock agencies:  Dreamstime, istockphoto, 123rf or they are the intellectual property of the author, Lily Silver, who is also a professional photographer.