And You All Thought Hill House Was A Bad Place: Crimson Peak

It's tempting to call Crimson Peak a classic example of splatterpunk gothic but that would probably create the impression that the movie was a lot gorier than it actually was.

As it is, the movie was a lot gorier than the typical gothic movies that I remember seeing when I was growing up but it still had plenty of old-fashioned horror thrills as well as a plot twist that I certainly did not see coming. If nothing else, it was hard to hate a movie that managed to work in allusions to both Jane Austen and Mary Shelley in its dialogue and it didn't hurt that the heroine Edith Cushing* (who was played by actress Mia Wasikowska) was smarter than your average damsel in distress.

If all of Guillermo del Toro's movies were this good, I'd be a lot more optimistic about his future projects.

* An obvious reference to that Cushing!