by Emily Maesar, Staff Writer

“The horror was for love.”

In the six years since Guillermo del Toro’s gothic horror film Crimson Peak was released, the general consensus on the film has changed. Like, the original Forbes review of the film called it, “so disappointing it’s scary” and Entertainment Weekly said that it was “so preoccupied with being visually stunning it forgets to be scary.” Which isn’t to say that people outwardly hated the film or anything. The vibe was generally that it was perfectly fine. It’s beautiful to look at, but it didn’t deliver on the scare factor. 

And while the film does have its moments of ghost horror, jump scares, and some gnarly del Toro gore, the fact that so many people think Crimson Peak is an out-and-out horror is all due to marketing. The trailer that Legendary put out in May of 2015 certainly looks like a horror flick. It’s filled with a lot of the scares and thrills that one might use to classify del Toro’s film in the genre. Creatures and secrets and rattling door knobs that send a chill down your spine as the music climaxes. 

However, horror and terror moments alone do not make a horror film. Lots of things are gothic and spooky without being classified as such. And this story certainly falls under that umbrella. Set in 1887, Crimson Peak follows the young American heiress Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) as she falls in love with Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). After the mysterious death of her father, she marries Thomas and moves in with him and his sister Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain) in their dilapidated English mansion. When it’s revealed that Thomas has been married many times before her, and that the Sharpes are poisoning her, Edith refuses to be another ghost at Allerdale Hall.

In more ways than one, Crimson Peak is like Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca… if Rebecca was still alive and Mr. de Winter was her brother. And to that end, I also think that del Toro is completely correct about the genre classifications of the film. Because the audience wasn’t the only voice saying it wasn’t horror. Before the film was released widely he said, on Twitter, that it was a gothic romance, not a gothic horror. So, despite me saying “gothic horror” throughout this piece… it’s actually not. The marketing did lie to us.

Because if it’s like Rebecca, albeit with some actual ghosts and a bit more violence from the get go, then del Toro is right. It is a gothic romance. Lucille says it, doesn’t she? All the horror in Crimson Peak was for love. And as twisted and mad as she is, she speaks the truth. Because despite all the scariness of the ghosts and spirits, none of them actually try to harm Edith. They’re trying to warn her about the nefarious plans of the Sharpe siblings. They’re trying to help Edith, so her fate is not forever intertwined with the house and the Sharps, like theirs were. And while I think that comes across pretty well in the film, the novelization immortalizes that in ink. 

Written by Nancy Holder, the novelization of Crimson Peak was released the Tuesday after the film. It was no The Shape of Water novel, in terms of odd production and there’s no debate about if it’s even a novelization at all. It is, and it rules. The book is exactly what you’d expect, remaining pretty faithful to the film. However, because it’s so close, I’m led to believe that very little changed between the script Holder was given and the shooting script for the film - a pretty rare event, all things considered. 

But let’s go back to that thought. That the novelization of Crimson Peak really lets you know something that the film only heavily implies. The film has voice over, but it’s used sparingly as bookends to Edith’s story, and she’s the only one whose inner thoughts we ever hear. The novelization allows us into the minds and feelings of moments, scenes, and characters that we’d never get otherwise.

This is true with all the leads, for sure, but it’s also true of the ghosts. Holder does an amazing job of giving us the general vibe of the spirits who haunt Allerdale Hall and what their intentions are. And it’s something that I think adds to the argument that Crimson Peak is a gothic romance, and that it is not a gothic horror. Because, ultimately, those scenes really cut down on the actual terror factor. 

We know, pretty much from jump, that the ghosts in Allerdale Hall don’t mean Edith any harm. Instead, they desperately want to help her, to make her realize what secrets this crumbling mansion olds. It is in this desperation, though, that they too become tragic figures in the doomed romance of it all. Which is pretty standard fare for gothic stories of this nature, and makes it such a delight to read. Because the real terror and suspense comes from the humans, their secrets, and what price they’re willing to pay to keep them.

So, while I think the film stands pretty firmly on the legs of being a gothic romance, the novelization more than proves it. Besides doing exactly what good novelizations are meant to do (allowing the audience to revisit a story from a slightly different perspective outside the confines of the screen), Nancy Holder’s version of Crimson Peak is also a great addition to the story. Not to mention how well it stands on its own as a piece of gothic literature. 

And with all of that, I implore you to enjoy Guillermo del Toro’s sexy, bloody, gothic romance which has spooky vibes, but is not necessarily horror on its own. And pick up Nancy Holder’s novelization of it too, while you’re at it. Maybe it’ll be your gateway into other gothic literature - I think it’s a pretty fun place to start, if so!