Grand Designs and Flat Characters

If you're at all interested in horror or thriller movies chances are you're aware of the brimming box office success of director Guillermo Del Toro's (spelled his name right first try) newest film "Crimson Peak". Crimson peaks follows the story of a wealthy american heiress, played by Mia Wasikowska, who finds herself wed to struggling English inventor, played by Tom Hiddleston.

Mia is whisked by her new lover from the comfort of the streets of buffalo New York to a grand and desolate mansion in the heart of  the English countryside. After a few nights it becomes both clear to Mia and the audience that something ghostly is a foot, but for the sake of spoilers I'll spare you all the details of the rest of the plot.

Overall the film is gorgeous, I really found myself being sucked into the frame by the wealth of period details. Perhaps the only fumble on the part of the production design was in layering on too many heavy handed metaphors throughout. Early on in the film is compared to a butterfly and from that point forward there is distinct insect iconography in almost every scene. 

On the topic of butterflies, it's strange to me that Mia's character is compared to one so often despite the fact that she undergoes no character metamorphosis what so ever. Her character lacks any sort of motivation ; even when she's hit over the head with plot details that would leave any other person paralyzed with fear, she doesn't bat so much as an eyelash.

The film as a whole just felt a little bit too fast, like someone cranked up the speed on the haunted mansion ride at disney. There are a few scary parts, but the film jumps to the next scene so fast that you never get to seep yourself in the horror of the protagonists situation. I'd definitely recommend it to those of you looking to go into production design, but if you're looking for a truly gripping thriller you could do a whole lot better than Crimson Peak.

Pacific Rim: A defense

Recently I was reading the other groups posts and stumbled upon someone who recently was watched Pacific Rim and disliked it. As a big fan of both the movie and Guillermo Del Toro, I am going to come to the films defense against the most common criticism the film gets. For those who have not seen or heard of Pacific Rim, it's about years in the future where monstrous beings known as Kaiju come out of a portal in the Pacific Ocean and wreak havoc on the coastlines. The humans respond to the attacks in the most logical manner, by building giant humanoid robots to punch the Kaiju. Many people criticized the film for not being as deep and intricate as Del Toro's earlier works like Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone. I dont think that these people fully understood the whole idea of Pacific Rim. This was Del Toro's chance to make a blockbuster big budget action film. It was a passion project for him to put everything he loved about classic monster movies (often called "kaiju films" as Kaiju is Japanese for strange beast) into a fun, dumb film. The film was also criticized for it's lack of character development of which I can partially agree with. While some of the secondary characters, mainly the other Jaeger (robot) pilots. However the two main characters Raleigh and Mako have some good character development. We see both characters struggle with and eventually overcome grief. Raleigh himself even says "All these years, I've been living in the past, never really thought about the future until now. I never did have good timing."   Pacific Rim is a big dumb and incredibly fun film, and that's all it was meant to be. Once people known that they can sit back and enjoy the ride.  

'At The Mountains of Madness': Guillermo Del Toro's Take on H.P. Lovecraft

I recently stumbled upon a very exciting article: "Guillermo Del Toro Finally Arrives 'At The Mountains of Madness'! Best Movies News of The Year?" This is exciting for me on two different levels: one, the fact that an H.P. Lovecraft work is finally getting a chance at the big screen, and two, Guillermo Del Toro is the one that's attempting to do it.

While I have never actually read anything by Lovecraft, I have grown up with his works. My older brother, MarQ (his preferred spelling and a general indication of his love for the weird), has been a fan for as long as I can remember. MarQ has read almost everything under the sun by Lovecraft and is a devoted fan of the intricate mythos he has created. I would often over hear him and his friends ranting and raving about their latest reads when I was younger (MarQ is eight years older than me). I grew up with Cthulu as a daily reference. To say the least, I credit my brother with my interest in the weird and creepy.

When I discussed this movie plan with him, MarQ all but squealed with excitement. Guillermo Del Toro is the perfect fit for such a creepy tale. Del Toro has often cited Lovecraft as an inspiration for the wonderfully dark and twisted creatures he creates in his films. Cthulu is easily the most recognizable inspiration and is described in the following excerpt from Lovecraft's short story, The Call of Cthulu: "...an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature.... A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings." The image featured on the Cthulu Wikipedia page:

If you are familiar with Del Toro's films, it's easy to see how he incorporates Lovecraft's imagery into his work. In the film Hellboy, the reincarnating beast Sammael has very similar physical qualities to Cthulu.

I'm super excited to see what Del Toro has in store for this film. At the moment, the project is shelves as Del Toro finds a willing studio to finance the film. But since James Cameron is involved, I predict it won't take long.