Guillermo del Toro on his new film 'Crimson Peak'
Enter the hauntingly gothic doors of “Crimson Peak” as Guillermo del Toro’s latest creation heads to theaters just in time for Halloween.
Enter the hauntingly gothic doors of “Crimson Peak,” Guillermo del Toro’s latest creation, as it makes its way to theaters just in time for Halloween.
While the film clearly lives in the realm of scary movies, there are many more elements at play. “It’s a very character-oriented movie,” the accomplished Mexican writer-director-producer told Foxnews.com.
“Strangely enough, a very female-oriented movie, and I wanted to lead with that ahead of anything,” he added.
“Also with beauty, I mean, the movie is gorgeous to look at and it feels lavish, almost like a throwback to old Hollywood productions and I wanted to lead with all that and then have the creepy, sort of eerie, atmosphere take over,” del Toro said.
“And there are a couple of good scares, a couple of good murders, so there’s a little for everyone,” he added.
As for his own fascination with the supernatural, the 51-year-old filmmaker said it all comes from being a Mexican native, where people have “the most intimate relationship with anything supernatural.”
“You can be having dinner with 20 people and if you say, ‘Who has seen a ghost?’ everybody’s going to [raises hand],” he explained. “It’s very normal and I think that affects my movies.”
When inquired as to whether he has seen a ghost, he said, “Oh yeah. I’ve heard two ghosts and I’ve seen one UFO.”
In this new project, del Toro puts a twist on what supernatural audiences are used to seeing because, he said “the idea of ‘Crimson’ is that ghosts are scary but humans are scarier than ghosts.”
When it comes to vampires, that’s another story.
Del Toro is co-creator of the FX series “The Strain” and also co-authored the vampire-horror novel it’s based on.
He spoke about the challenges of making your mark in that world.
“I think that the two or three times I’ve approached vampires - in “Cronos,” “Blade” and this [“Strain”] - I’ve always brought vampires that I think have not been seen,” he said.
“The vampires [we typically see on screen] are these suave, elegant, handsome, characters that, you know ... being sucked by those guys is not that big a challenge," he joked. "But if you have these obscenely horrible creatures with horrible appendages protruding from their mouth, I think that’s a parasitic vampire and it’s more scary in a way.”
Click the video above for the full interview with Guillermo del Toro. “Crimson Peak” comes out nationally on October 16th.
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