STACK Mar #137

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Guillermo del Toro explains why his gothic melodrama Crimson Peak is not your average haunted house movie.
W hen his long gestating H.P. Lovecraft
passion project, At the Mountains of
Madness , was shelved once again,
visionary director Guillermo del Toro turned his
attention to another mountain – Crimson Peak.
"I fell in love with the idea of a mountain that
becomes red in the winter – the snow becomes red
as blood," he explains. "It’s a very powerful image,
and that’s where the movie came from. What I
wanted was to do a very classic gothic romance, but
with a couple of things that were very, very modern.
So there are a few violent sequences – graphic,
brutal – and a sexual element that is quite raw; no
nudity or explicit content but strong taboo breaking.
A lavish period ghost story that marries
melodrama and romance to haunted house horrors,
Crimson Peak evokes the gothic trappings of
Jane Eyre and Rebecca, as well as the malevolent
mansion of The Haunting. However, del Toro states
that his inspiration came from one of his favourite
gothic novels: Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas , which
involves an innocent trapped in a very wicked place.
" The Haunting has a very different architecture,
and I tried to not reference other movies in the
same genre," he adds. " Rebecca is very much a
gothic movie, but Rebecca is actually very, very
close to Jane Eyre, and then Jane Eyre is very
close to Dragonwyck or Uncle Silas! Gothic novels
have recurring elements: the distressed, dark
brooding hero, the innocent heroine coming to a
crumbling mansion, the hostility of the mansion or
its inhabitants.
"I think the idea is to create something that
comes from my own sensibility. That’s what Kubrick
did in The Shining. He took the haunted house
genre, and he made a hotel that looked modern and
somewhat clean and full of really modern shapes on
the rug and the walls, and he made it become really,
really menacing."
A triumph of production design, every frame
of Crimson Peak is a work of art. Saturated with
primary colours and deep shadows, its visual design
recalls the work of cult Italian filmmaker Mario Bava,
which del Toro is quick to acknowledge.
"Visually, I am trying to create a sense of scope
and grandeur and – in some instances – fashioning
an elegant Technicolor look," he explains. "What I
mean is, when you see the images, they have very
strong colour and it’s sort of the way the Italian
filmmakers used to do colour gothic. I adore Mario
Bava’s sense of colour and his sense of atmosphere.
He worked on camera and he used a lot of primary
colours. So we are trying to do our take on
‘Technicolor gothic.’
Like the wispy apparition in del Toro's 2001
drama The Devil's Backbone, Crimson Peak's
ghosts remain largely incidental to the plot – it's not
a ghost story, per se.
"Tonally, it is different than most gothic stories;
there is quite a drive to the mystery and a use of
ghosts and apparitions that is quite unique," del Toro
confirms.
Given his fascination with the supernatural, has
the director himself experienced
any paranormal activity first
hand?
"Well, I’ve had two experiences,
so I do believe [ghosts] exist," he
reveals. "I had one in New Zealand and one in
Mexico. In New Zealand, I rented a haunted room
in a hotel. In the middle of the night, I heard horrible
screams – like someone being murdered – and the
hotel was empty for the season. And I heard the
ghost of my uncle sighing in my ear after he died.
I think that the fact that I believe in ghosts makes
me treat them with a personal perspective as a
filmmaker."
Crimson Peak's crumbling Allerdale Hall mansion
is as much a character in the film as its inhabitants.
It's also a testament to del Toro's attention to
detail – built as a three-storey practical set with
functioning elevator and fireplaces.
"There is great beauty in shooting in a real
place, on a real set, and it informs the way the
actors behave and the way you set the mood
with the camera," he says. "The set
was four stories high, with running
water, bathrooms, bedrooms, working
chimneys, etc, and encompassed most
of the house and a piece of exterior."
Known for keeping souvenirs from his
sets once shooting has wrapped, will he
be taking anything home from Allerdale
Hall?
"Some key props and books, yes. It’s
my favourite set, I wish I could live in the
library. I honestly wish the Crimson Peak
house could be my house!"
• Crimson
Peak
is out now
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34 MARCH 2016
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112 Ocean Avenue,
Amityville
A history of mass murder, bleeding
walls, swarms of blowflies and a
pig demon. For God’s sake get out!
(The Amityville Horror, 1979)
Hill House
Paranormal researchers discover
cold spots, self-slamming doors
and ghostly bedmates in Hugh
Crain’s legendary haunted
estate. (The Haunting, 1963)
Hell House
This fog-shrouded mansion, built
by depraved millionaire Emeric
Belasco, is “the Mount Everest
of haunted houses”. (The
Legend of Hell House, 1973)
The Overlook Hotel
Historic, haunted resort in
the Colorado Rockies that
always takes care of its winter
caretaker and his family.
(The Shining , 1980)
UNREALESTATE