STACK #137 Mar 2016

DVD & BD FEATURE

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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

• Crimson Peak is out now

the director himself experienced any paranormal activity first hand? "Well, I’ve had two experiences, so I do believe [ghosts] exist," he

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

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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!"

UNREAL ESTATE

112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville

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)

A history of mass murder, bleeding walls, swarms of blowflies and a pig demon. For God’s sake get out! ( The Amityville Horror , 1979)

MARCH 2016

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