LOS ANGELES—Fear is written in the walls of “Crimson Peak’s” crumbling haunted mansion. Literally.
Director Guillermo del Toro had his production and design teams fashion the word into the cracks and crevasses of the woodwork and furniture throughout the massive, three-story manor, which they built from the ground up specifically for the gothic thriller.
It’s not that del Toro thinks that spelling out the word fear will make the experience of watching the film any scarier. In fact he doesn’t even believe in subliminal messages at all. (Ghosts, mind you, are another story.)
But it is one among dozens of hidden-in-plain-sight treats and thematically relevant motifs woven into the visuals of the painstakingly designed film about a young American novelist, Edith (Mia Wasikowska), who comes to live in the eerie estate of her new husband, Thomas (Tom Hiddleston) and his sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain), in 1901.
The costumes even have their own little warning signs. Lucille’s wardrobe in particular is meant to almost camouflage her in Allerdale Hall. The heaviness of her frocks and wig also helped the delicate Chastain sink further into a character who is deeply tied to her home.
“Edith wears a belt with a hand clasp. That’s taken from the idea of a Victorian mourning jewelry,” said Hawley.
It won’t take a dozen viewings to notice that Lucille and Thomas’s wardrobe has the same color palette as the house, but look a little closer and you might spot some of the same patterns on Lucille’s dress used in trimmings. In the woodwork, you may see human shapes. And the windows? Yes, they’re meant to look like eyes.
At one point, Lucille tells Edith she’s like a fragile butterfly. Del Toro laughed that someone could play a pretty good drinking game trying to spot all the butterflies in the wallpaper alone.
So where is the intricately designed haunted mansion now?
“Sadly they destroyed it shortly thereafter,” said del Toro.
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