CREDIT: UNIVERSAL PICTURES (2015)
Visually brilliant with excellent acting, Crimson Peak lets down any dreams of a del Toro horror.

Some people haunt you long after they’re gone: their scent lingers in a hall, you could swear you saw them, just briefly, out of the corner of your eye, or you hear their voice in the wind, calling you and guiding you in your darkest hour.

In Guillermo del Toro’s newest movie, Crimson Peak, this idea is taken further, with the ghosts of the past desperately crying out to be heard. Following a young woman named Edith Cushing, played by Mia Wasikowska, this is a movie that attempts to tell a story with ghosts in it, far from the true horror the film was advertised as.

I must admit that the first third of the movie is brilliant. There’s a great deal of artistic merit in the scenery, and the ghosts are designed with an impeccable eye towards the macabre. The music is scored to draw in the audience, menacing and thrilling by turns.

The Sharpe siblings strike a delightful chord between malevolence and broken, and are, at least in the beginning, written with a surprising amount of charm. Edith’s naïveté feels perfectly believable considering her sheltered upbringing, and Charlie Hunnam takes a nice break from his Sons of Anarchy character to play the good-guy doctor.

Sadly, all of the energy and intelligence of the film seems to be spent in the first 45 minutes. With scene transitions seemingly pulled from terrible power point presentations and an unnecessarily disturbing subplot, the movie quickly goes from powerful and dynamic to depressingly predictable.

This isn’t to say there aren’t still charming elements throughout. Hiddleston’s character proves to be somewhat more complex than anticipated and never has a house so perfectly embodied the intended feel of a film as Adderdale Hall.

The Sharpe sister, played by Jessica Chastain, is perhaps the best character in the film. She has a quiet darkness playing in her smiles, a musical talent that haunts you long after the credits role and a commanding presence, demanding your attention whenever she is on screen. Chastain remains the most consistent throughout the film, and one could wish that Crimson Peak focused more on her.

There should also be fair warning that the movie is, on occasion, gory beyond the point of reason for the sake of gore. In a movie that does such an excellent job of building tension, gross-out tactics and jump scares come with a high price.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the movie is that the initial buildup and suspense is so good that anything after has nowhere left to go. The movie plateaus at such an early point that the audience can’t help but feel disappointed in what should be the climax. The final actions of the characters feel forced, the ending inevitable.

Despite its beautiful design and amazing beginning, Crimson Peak is destined to disappoint. For any audience members expecting a horror, prepare instead to watch a romance with horror elements