Crimson Peak
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 16, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyOct 15, 2015
Crimson Peak's atmosphere crackles with sexual passion and dark secrets. There are a couple of monsters (supernatural and human), but the gigantic emotions are the most terrifying thing onscreen. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jason GorberOct 16, 2015
Guillermo del Toro’s latest dive into the darkness is a sumptuous, beautifully constructed tale that feels both archaic and inviting. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineJake ColeOct 14, 2015
Guillermo del Toro's fussiest, most compartmentalized construction, filled with the most powerful sense of repression and delusion. Read full review
85
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 13, 2015
While the digital effects are undeniably contemporary, Crimson Peak is otherwise a period homage that mostly plays like a period film, rarely giving in to contemporary notions of pacing and payoff. When the scares do arrive, however, they’re effectively unsettling. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 15, 2015
Horror is an impatient person's game these days, and Crimson Peak isn't hurried at all. It seduces with creepily erotic atmosphere, and performances in perfect tune with the script's melodrama. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnOct 14, 2015
Beyond its surface pleasures, Crimson Peak also confronts the demons of modern entertainment. The movie frightens and surprises us in familiar ways, but at the same time issues a plea for restraint. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyOct 13, 2015
This is a film of tactile decadence, such a rich sensory experience that it's almost suffocating. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinOct 19, 2015
It may be a little overwrought for some tastes, borderline camp at points, but if you're partial to a bit of Victorian romance with Hammer horror gloop and big, frilly night-gowns, GDT delivers an uncommon treat. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 16, 2015
Its sombre sincerity and hypnotic, treasure-box beauty make Crimson Peak feel like a film out of time – but Del Toro, his cast and his crew carry it off without a single postmodern prod or smirk. The film wears its heart on its sleeve, along with its soul and most of its intestines. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 16, 2015
It doesn’t always seem to know what it wants to be. But it’s still full of marvels. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 15, 2015
Here’s the thing about Crimson Peak, which is lurid and ghastly and immensely enjoyable and frequently spectacular and also thinner and less substantial than it wants to be, like a meal eaten in a dream. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 14, 2015
Guillermo del Toro’s gothic fantasy-romance Crimson Peak is outrageously sumptuous, gruesomely violent and designed to within an inch of its life. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 13, 2015
Del Toro’s predictably impeccable production design and tonal flourishes help bring the film to life, aided by strong performances from his leads, especially Jessica Chastain, who gives the otherwise reverent proceedings just the right amount of jolt. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonOct 13, 2015
Though this movie waltzes to its own strange rhythm, del Toro hits every note. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRuss FischerOct 13, 2015
Never entirely satisfying as a drama, Crimson Peak is visually dazzling, boasting lively and at times even transfixing performances that keep the story’s blood flowing. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensOct 15, 2015
For the two hours it lasted I wasn't asking any questions, only giggling, squirming, screaming, and swooning. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 15, 2015
If the film is ultimately an exercise in atmosphere, it is without question a triumph on that front. The rich textures and almost tactile visuals are astonishing. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 14, 2015
Crimson Peak is a cobwebs-and-candelabras chamber piece that’s so preoccupied with being visually stunning it forgets to be scary. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeOct 13, 2015
Unsurprisingly for a Del Toro film, the production design is the real star of Crimson Peak. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 17, 2015
A ghost story in which superior camerawork, costumes and production design work together to put the audience in a trance. It's tough on actors not to get swallowed up in the scenery. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 16, 2015
Director Guillermo del Toro’s unique visual style is on display but the story is predictable, the characters are flat, and the supernatural elements are red herrings. To paraphrase a character, this isn’t so much a ghost story as it is a “story with ghosts.” Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 15, 2015
This is a film that believes deeply in ghosts, and half of them are in its director’s head. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartOct 14, 2015
Chastain and Wasikowska take center stage while Hiddleston flutters around like one of Allerdale’s huge black moths. Watching the women square off within del Toro’s eye-popping, painterly palette is a feast for the eyes, if not particularly substantial fare for the mind. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 14, 2015
Del Toro reminds us just how chilling bumping into the supernatural is supposed to be, just how stomach churning violence is and just how many shades of red blood shows us, from first spurt to crusty dust. Read full review
60
Total FilmJosh WinningOct 19, 2015
A curious hybrid of grim fairytale and gory horror, del Toro’s ninth feature is striking but sorely lacking in surprises. Great ghosts, but del Toro is capable of so much more. Read full review
60
CineVueMartyn Conterio Oct 16, 2015
Crimson Peak is locked in by a somnambulist, formulaic vibe and comes off as contented to go through Gothic 101 motions without recourse to reinvention or refreshing vigour. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 15, 2015
The film is too busy, and in some ways too gross, to sustain an effective atmosphere of dread. It tumbles into pastiche just when it should be swooning and sighing with earnest emotion. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 15, 2015
Crimson Peak's astonishing visuals don't enhance its story (co-written by the director and Matthew Robbins); they overwhelm it, encouraging us to stand back and admire the look when we should be involved in the emotional mechanics of this lurid tale. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonOct 14, 2015
All three actors work hard... and when the melodrama hits fever pitch, Crimson Peak lurches into life. But overall this lacks weight and intensity: a Brontë-esque bauble smeared in twenty-first-century slickness. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 13, 2015
The gifted fantasy/sci-fi/horror specialist has made a film that's very bloody, and bloody stylish at that, one that's certainly unequaled in its field for the beauty of its camerawork, sets, costumes and effects. But it's also conventionally plotted and not surprising or scary at all, as it resurrects hoary horror tropes from decades ago to utilize them in conventional, rather than fresh or subversive ways Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc MohanOct 15, 2015
Crimson Peak ends up feeling like a bit of make-work, a project to keep the visionary filmmaker busy until something that truly sparks his passion comes along. Read full review
50
Next Best PictureGiovanni LagoNov 6, 2025
Chastain, Wasikowska, and Hiddleston do their best, but the writing of “Crimson Peak“ comes off far more slight than Del Toro’s previous work. It lives in the shadow of similar films, but with a far more unrelieved energy. Del Toro and Robbins eventually find a groove, but by the time that occurs, it’s far too late. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanOct 29, 2015
Del Toro gets the ghostly elements right, with red and black flesh-torn spooks wailing warnings to the receptive Edith. But he goes wildly overboard in aiming for atmosphere after the story shifts to the Sharpes’ crumbling English manor. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 15, 2015
Crimson Peak is a gorgeous mediocrity. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 15, 2015
Not even the film's occasional bursts of ultra-violence, or the endlessly oozing red clay, or Hiddleston crying a red tear, or Chastain swanning around in one flaming crimson ball gown after another, can infuse this gorgeous bore with anything like red-blooded suspense. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 14, 2015
For sheer, sepulchral eye candy at this most horror-ific time of year, del Toro’s Crimson Peak leaves Tim Burton – reigning misfit king of hyper-stylized, goth-y weirdness – in the dust and well-nigh forgotten. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 13, 2015
Aflame with color and awash in symbolism, this undeniably ravishing yet ultimately disappointing haunted-house meller is all surface and no substance, sinking under the weight of its own self-importance into the sanguine muck below. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 15, 2015
The film by the stylish fantasist Guillermo del Toro looks marvelous, but has a vein of narrative muck at its core. Read full review
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