Movie Review

Watching the movie Crimson Peak and answer following questions.

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1. How do the production sequence, opening credits, and title sequence impact the viewer’s immediate understanding of the film? That is, how does the film set itself up as a particular sort of film from the very first moments?

2. How do colors work in the film? Can you track their development as the film progresses? (Are certain characters associated with certain colors? Do different settings have particular color schemes? Do these change throughout the film?)

3. What gothic tropes do you see in the film? Do they work the way you expect them to, or are they slightly reimagined / subverted?

4. Describe Allerdale Hall. How does it add to the film’s atmosphere? How does it function in the narrative?

5. What is the role of technology in the film? How does it appear, and what is its role in the narrative? 

6. What do you make of the ending? Is it a traditional Gothic ending, or does Del Toro play with conventions?

7. To what effect do you think the film works in the Gothic genre? If, as Goddu argues, the American Gothic is a way of working through particular cultural anxieties–and, specifically, anxieties about America itself–what does the film’s transatlantic movement signify? What sort of anxieties is it concerned with? Think both of the film’s setting (late 1800s) and its historical context (2015).