Crimson Peak

Henderson is played by Stephen Dunham, Daniels is played by Corey Johnson, and Burns is played by Tuke Watkins, and learns that they've been employed by an Egyptologist played by Jonathan Hyde to hunt for the lost city of Hamunaptra as well.

To do a mini-bio for all of them real quick, Hyde's a genre veteran thanks to Jumanji, Anaconda, Titanic, and Crimson Peak, while Dunham showed up in Paranormal Activity 4 before his untimely death in 2012 at the age of 48, and Johnson specializes in American roles in British productions like the wealthy Henry Van Staten in the first season Doctor Who episode Dalek.

And Watkins is our soap opera horror guy this time out, appearing on One Life to Live and General Hospital, as well as the primetime soap Desperate Housewives.

They tend to appear as a group in this movie, and are every bit as stereotypically American as the Arabic characters are stereotypically Arabic, which I think helps to diffuse the movie's problematic attitude to race, because everyone is a caricature in this.

Because they're

sisters, which is a big problem we're going to run into when I make you watch Crimson Peak.

Anyway.

Okay.

And this gives you a very clean middle view of that type of... aristocracy side of that culture that not a whole lot of people recognize because it's not something that they saw very often.

I think, honestly, I feel in my bones to a certain extent that del Toro had to have taken some inspiration from this movie to do Crimson Peak.

Obviously, Crimson Peak is much more gothic and much more...

You know that there are ghosts there, but I feel such an inspiration from the others to Crimson Peak.

I feel like they're spiritually similar.

Fuck, I just had another one in my head that completely went out the window.

You want to keep interrupting? It's okay.

No, Crimson Peak, Portal to Hell, etc., etc.

So, primarily known for makeup effects, and we're going to get into that probably at some point in the discussion.

Um...

much more big-budget.

Yeah,

but Stephen Kostanski like this guy did make up effects on Crimson Peak

Hmm the Guillermo movie.

Her clothing immediately identifies her as a figure associated with mourning.

Another example is Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak.

I was waiting for this.

Which is set in the late 19th century.

It's almost fairytale-like in its execution and is probably best described somewhere between a fantasy and a horror.

Without giving away any spoilers, which is a difficult thing to do with the film as the plot is so thin, it's a movie best described as a cross between 2024's Abigail if it were made on the set of Del Toro's Crimson Peak and with a script straight out of a Brothers Grimm fairytale novel.

The set dressing of the house as our thieves explore the property is first class and packed to the brim full of stuffed animals, weird clocks, creepy ornaments which add to the tension and atmosphere.

You really get a sense of being in the property.

Right, because I can hear a studio exec arguing, you know, we already have a million haunted house movies.

We have Crimson Peak.

We have Rebecca.

Why does this need eight hours of screen time?

Wasn't there some movie where the ghosts were trying to give hints about how somebody needed help? Like they were doing terrifying haunting stuff, but really only trying to help.

Crimson Peak, maybe.

Either way, I thought that it was a legitimate possibility.

I'm not going to stereotype or anything, but we've had a number of evangelical preachers doing shady stuff in the news lately.

But, um, I personally...

Let's get some, like, Guillermo del Toro in there, like some Crimson Peak.

Like, it would look so stunning.

I feel like Shape of Water, if you're a creature fan, it's kinda creature-esque.