With Halloween fast approaching, many of us will be taking up the age old tradition of watching a scary movie, to really get us in the spirit of this hallowed day. With 8 horror films slotted for the month of October, the field of choices is as large as it has ever been. Now if you’re like me, you would hate to waste your time and money on something that’s not going to give you the experience you crave on old hallow’s eve. Crimson Peak may just be the movie to do that this Halloween season. Be advised that this will be a spoiler free ‘reflection’ of the film, Crimson Peak, directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, and Mia Wasikowska.

Let me preface this by saying that Crimson Peak was a solid film. I think it is wholly worth every penny of its admissions price and was quite the compelling tale. I must say however that it falls a little short of true ‘Halloween’ entertainment. I would say that Crimson Peak is a subject of its marketing. If you remember the 2004 film ‘The Village’ directed by M. Night Shyamalan, then you may recall the widespread backlash it received from both casual and critical moviegoers. The trailers and overall marketing scheme for the film sold it as a fantasy thriller involving a mysterious village and the monsters that plagued its borders. If you’ve seen the film, you realize that this is far from the case. Without giving anything away, The Village is less of a monster story, and more of a story that happens to have monsters in it, and Crimson Peak follows a similar trend.

Crimson Peak’s trailer would lead you to believe that you are about to be subjected to an abundantly fantastical tale of ghosts and revenants, and while they are a major element of the story, they are by no means the main focus of the movie. Once again, despite its claims, this is not a ghost story, but a story with ghosts in it. I personally am okay with this because they were extremely well done (the CGI in this movie was immaculate) and helped drive the plot, however I could recognize that for those who are really looking for an edge of your seat, jump straight out of your chair, truly horrifying flick, you may want to look elsewhere.

All in all, I would say that Crimson Peak is a scary movie, just not quite in the way I personally look for on a Halloween night. If you want some ideas of what kind of scary I am talking about, think, ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Evil Dead’ or even ‘Poltergeist’. These movies have their flaws, but at the end of the day they give you that unbeatable, unexplainable, chilling fear that I associate with Halloween’s true meaning.