Guillermo del Toro On Building The Crimson Peak House

When you watch Crimson Peak this week, keep an eye out for the ridiculous amount of detail that went into the set. Guillermo del Toro spoke to Wired about foregoing visual effects and spending seven months building the mansion, which he calls a “vital character” of the film. Furniture sizes, colors, everything will tell you something about the story its characters. I’m reminded of del Toro’s own Bleak House, full of curiosities and strange objects.

He also wants to make it very clear that Crimson Peak is a Gothic romance, not a horror film. The film calls on archetypes of the Gothic genre, so expect lots of terror. The image of a woman in a crumbling mansion with a Byronic figure evokes literature like The Mysteries of Udolpho, Jane Eyre, The Fall of the House of Usher, and other stories where women just can’t escape that damn house.

Del Toro talks briefly about the role of women in the genre, stating that “I knew from the get-go, when we were doing the movie, to be female centric because Gothic romance was written by great women writers.”

I’m very excited for Crimson Peak, and for del Toro’s “eye protein,” how about you?

(via Wired)