Link to IMBd synopsis/movie info:
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt2554274/
*SPOILERS!*
As the film starts out, you see Edith Cushing (Wasikowska) panting and bloodied with tear-filled eyes with her narrating about ghosts. The character recalls her first encounter with a ghost; that of her mother. Edith's mother appears to her when she is a child and an adult, both times to warn her about "Crimson Peak." If you pay attention to what Edith is doing when she is visited by the ghost a second time, you'll notice that she is reading about Allerdale Hall and the Sharpe family. The ghost, of course, shocks her to the point that she never again looks at the book. It is likely that if she had, she would have learned that the nickname of Allerdale Hall was, in fact, Crimson Peak.
Stepping away from the ghosts for a moment, we focus on Sir Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston). When we are first introduced to him, Edith is busy typing her manuscript for a book she wrote about ghosts. Thomas sees it, of course, and asks her about it and its author. She admits that it's hers and that the ghost isn't really a ghost, but a metaphor for the past. The story then unfolds for Edith in a similar way: she is thrown into a story where the ghosts are real, but instead are a window into the past.
It is important to note that every time Thomas is on screen, save for one time, he is dressed in all-black.
The costume design in this movie is brilliant, but only noticeable after a particular scene focusing on Edith and Lady Lucille Sharpe (Chastain). In the scene, Lucille is seen cutting a cocoon off of a tree limb. Edith approaches her and asks if it's a butterfly. Lucille explains that it isn't yet, but it will be. The camera then pans to see a cluster of monarch butterflies at the two women's feet. Lucille then begins to talk about the fragility of the butterflies and how they only have black moths back home (Allerdale Hall) and how they only eat butterflies. From this point on, the costume design reflects this assertion. The importance of Edith and Lucille's clothing is to subtly show that Edith herself is a fragile butterfly on which Lucille attempts to prey.
Save for the Waltz scene and the scenes where Edith is in a nightgown of some sorts, she is always seen wearing either yellow or gold dresses, usually embroidered with some sort of butterfly-esk design. Lucille, on the other hand, is always seen wearing black, usually with a kind of cocoon-looking embroidery on her dresses. That is, except for the scene where you are first introduced to her.
The Waltz scene is one of the most pivotal sequences in the movie. After Edith's second encounter with her mother's ghost, she is swept off to a party with Thomas (probably what her mother tried to warn her against). At the party and in the opening scenes, Dr. Alan McMichael's (Hunnam) mother and sister, Eunice, talk about the interest Thomas and his have taken in Eunice. Mrs. McMichael and Lucille suggest that Thomas show them a proper waltz. However, Thomas chooses to dance with Edith and not Eunice, which upsets Lucille for a presently-unknown reason.
The Waltz scene is also important, because it is the only occasion in which Lucille is wearing something other than black; instead, she's wearing a blood-red dress and a blood-red ring. A ring which is later given to Thomas to "buy" Edith.
There are two reasons that Lucille wearing blood-red is important: one is because that is the color of clay that the Sharpe family mines and sells (or rather used to) and it is also the color of the majority of the ghosts in the movie. There are only three ghosts in the movie, excluding the faint apparitions that appear in the background every so often, that aren't red.
Two of the ghosts are black: the ghosts of Edith's mother and the ghost of Lucille, who Edith had to kill to keep herself and Alan alive. Initally, I suspected that they were black because they were two deaths that weren't caused by murder, but the pervious statement disqualifies that thought. Now, I believe that the reason these two ghosts are black is because they are the first and last ghosts you see. The ghost of Edith's mother begins the story and the ghost of Lucille ends it, so they are most likely black for symmetry.
The rest of the ghosts are red, distinctively matching the crimson clay that is seen throughout a majority of the film. These are the ghosts of those that Lucille murdered in cold-blood. It's a slight possibility that the bodies of these souls were buried in the clay pits in the basement of the house, but there is no way to confirm one way or another.
The final and most unique ghost of the film is that of Thomas Sharpe. Toward the end of the film, it is revealed that Thomas and his sister had been engaged in a romantic relationship since the time he was 12. When their mother was murdered and their fortune squandered, Thomas and Lucille began to pick women with no relatives and large bank accounts for Thomas to marry and bring to Allerdale Hall. Then, they would slowly poison the women until they signed over their assets to Thomas, at which point Lucille would murder them. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I believe that this is why Thomas and Lucille were initially interested in Eunice, Alan's sister. While she had relatives, her mother would probably never have bat an eye if she wound up dead. But Thomas unexpectedly had a connection with Edith instead, something he didn't understand because of his dysfunctional relationship with his sister. The first hint at his true feelings for Edith is shown when Thomas comes back for her after breaking her heart. Thomas says "I seem to think of you at the most inopportune times," or something to the affect. After learning about his relationship with Lucille, it is presumable that those "inopportune times" were when he was sleeping with Lucille.
The reason that Thomas' ghost is white, I believe, is because of the love he genuinely felt for Edith. He unexpectedly fell in love with a woman who didn't need to kill to keep the relationship alive. Throughout the movie, you can see Thomas develop more from a closed-off stranger, to an open-hearted and enthusiastic soul. Of course, when he tells his sister that he loves Edith and not her, Lucille murders him. The reason he is the only white ghost in the movie, and why the character otherwise only wore black, is due to the transformation his love for Edith put him through. He turned from a dark and tortured soul to a pure heart in love.
Personally, I didn't find this movie scary, but it can definitely be described as disturbing. There are a few nit-picky things that bothered me and a couple other neat things I'll let you discover on your own, if you so choose. Be warned that there is slight male nudity, but nothing overly graphic. All-in-all, I think that Guillermo del Toro created a subtly brilliant film in which the actors played their parts flawlessly.
Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts! I'll catch you next time!
-MJ McCammon
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