Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Crimson Peak Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 16, 2019

To paraphrase a famous pronouncement from The Sixth Sense , Guillermo del Toro doesn’t just see dead people, he sees all sorts of paranormal and/or supernatural phenomena, at least if one goes by the often astounding visions that populate his films. In some ways Crimson Peak is arguably one of the more straightforward films in del Toro’s sometimes somewhat opaque canon, offering a ghost story of sorts that is in fact identified as a ghost story from the get go, courtesy of some narration by focal character Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska). But as del Toro reinforces both in his commentary and some of the supplements included on this Blu-ray disc, he feels Crimson Peak is a “gothic romance”, and thus del Toro’s perceived emphasis is on a starcrossed love story involving Edith and a duplicitous English baronet named Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). Crimson Peak kind of engages in a bit of misdirection at times, but one of the odd things about the screenplay by del Toro and Matthew Robbins is that it really doesn’t make any bones (ghostly skeletal or otherwise) about what are obviously malfeasant motives on the part of both Sharpe and his sister Lady Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain). That early decision to at least hint at spilling the beans may deprive the film of some suspense, but as with virtually any of del Toro’s films, there’s a palpable mood at play that helps the film elide some of its narrative stumbles.

Crimson Peak was released on Blu-ray several years ago by Universal. For those wanting a plot summary, I refer you to Martin Liebman's Crimson Peak Blu-ray review of that version. Marty's review is also a good source to compare screenshots from the Universal and Arrow releases.

Crimson Peak Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Crimson Peak is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The hardback book included with this release has only some standard generic verbiage about the transfer, saying the high definition master was "made available by NBC Universal". This is for all intents and purposes extremely similar if not downright identical to the previous Blu-ray release, though somewhat in line with my comments in the final section of this review, you often get different opinions with different reviewers, and I'm scoring this a 4.5, while Marty scored the Universal release at 4.0. There are still small dustings of noise in a couple of isolated scenes (two involving ghosts in bathrooms, weirdly enough), but aside from those passing (and rather brief) issues, I found the rest of this transfer to often be gorgeous, though as the screenshots accompanying this review show, there's a lot of fairly sickly looking yellow grading going on that can tend to skew the palette toward unnatural tones (no doubt by design). Blue grading seems to be "kinder" to a natural palette appearance. As Marty mentioned in his review, some of the darkest material does tend to swallow fine detail and at times even "regular" detail. That said, fine detail on elements like the ornate sets and costumes is often incredibly precise looking.

Crimson Peak Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I'm not sure why there seems to be some confusion on the audio options on this release (as evidenced by some comments on our Forum), though perhaps it's due to Arrow listing its DTS:X track as a "7.1 DTS:X" track (which is kinda sorta correct in terms of the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 core track). All I can tell you is my equipment clearly displayed a DTS:X track, and there is noticeable engagement of all channels from virtually the get go, as the thudding sound effects clearly pass overhead and pan from the front to the back of the soundstage. The film has a rather baroque sound design, and surround activity is brilliantly handled throughout the presentation. Effects are consistently directional in nature, and placement of ambient environmental sounds are typically well handled, often supporting an extremely wide soundfield. A number of panning effects are also utilized to great effect. Dialogue, effects and score are all rendered with flawless fidelity and smart prioritization throughout.

Crimson Peak Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has provided collectors with an unusually sumptuous package with this release, with a design advertised as being by Crimson Peak concept artist Guy Davis. In the one element of packaging that may frustrate some folks, everything is housed in a slightly oversized box which looks like a book. The outer packaging measures 7" tall by 6" wide by approximately 1 1/4" deep. Opening the cover (which opens like the front of a book) offers up an art card with this release's cover art, a folded mini-poster and four double sided postcards. The main non-disc supplement is an incredibly beautiful hardback book which features 80 jam packed pages with new essays, an archival interview with Guillermo del Toro, and lots of photos and original conceptual design illustrations by Guy Davis and Oscar Chichoni.

Arrow has ported over the supplements from the old Universal release, and included some new ones as well. Marty's review of the Universal release, linked to above, contains some info on the previously released bonus features. The new supplements offered on this release are indicated by an asterisk (*):

• Audio Commentary by Co-Writer and Director Guillermo del Toro


• The House is Alive: Constructing Crimson Peak* (1080p; 50:01) is advertised as being a "newly edited" piece which includes interviews with the cast and crew along with extensive behind the scenes footage.


• An Interview with Guillermo del Toro* (1080p; 8:36) is listed as "previously unseen", and is in Spanish with English subtitles.


• Allendale Hall: Four Featurettes

  The Gothic Corridor (1080p; 4:07)

  
  

  The Scullery (1080p; 4:25)

  
  

  The Red Clay Mines (1080p; 5:19)

  
  

  The Limbo Fog Set (1080p; 5:43)

• A Primer on Gothic Romance (1080p; 5:37)


• The Light and Dark of Crimson Peak (1080p; 7:54)


• Hand Tailored Gothic (1080p; 8:59)


• A Living Thing (1080p; 12:12)


• Beware of Crimson Peak (1080p; 7:52)


• Crimson Phantoms (1080p; 7:03)


• Kim Newman on Crimson Peak and the Tradition of Gothic Romance* (1080p; 17:37) features the ebullient critic offering his assessment of the "genre" proclivities of del Toro.


• Violence and Beauty in Guillermo del Toro's Gothic Fairy Tale Films* (1080p; 23:37) is a visual essay by Kat Ellinger.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 4:41)


• Original Trailers and TV Spots *

  International Trailer (1080p; 2:28)

  
  

  Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:36)

  
  

  TV Spots (1080p; 1:05)

• Image Gallery *

  Production Stills (1080p; 3:00)

  
  

  Behind the Scenes (1080p; 2:50)

Crimson Peak Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Many of us who offer our opinions about various media either online or in print have gotten used to readers taking us to task for various things through the years (as I've joked before, there are whole corners of the internet devoted to what an "idiot" I am), but one of the more interesting sidebars to this phenomenon is how some readers expect some kind of uniform response to films (with "uniform" typically tending to carry the subtextual meaning of agreeing with their personal assessment, of course). In that regard, it's interesting to note that Marty gave Crimson Peak 4.5 stars as a film when he reviewed the Universal Blu-ray release, while Brian Orndorf granted it only 2.5 stars when he reviewed it during its theatrical exhibition. Even our member reviews on the listing page for the original Blu-ray release show some disparity, with film ratings varying from 4.5 to 1.5 stars. I kind of fall in between the extremes with regard to this film — I was never less than interested in the story, even as I wished it had kept some secrets longer and perhaps revealed other secrets earlier. But the film is a riot of production design virtuosity, filled with the kind of grand and at times disturbing visions that have made other del Toro films so memorable. As Kim Newman mentions in one of the new supplements included on this disc, del Toro is a "genre" filmmaker, though divining which genre can be a bit of a challenge at times. That's probably true of Crimson Peak more than some of del Toro's other films, but at least there's plenty to look at while trying to come to that particular conclusion. One way or the other, Arrow has assembled an incredibly beautiful package here with solid technical merits and both appealing on disc bonus features as well as non-disc swag. Recommended.