Crimson Peak
it’s a movie with hidden meanings and metaphors, behind everything. One of the
best metaphors used in the entire movie is when the Sharpe siblings were still
in America in the early part of the film, Lucille tells Edith that they only
have black moths in England and ‘they feed on butterflies, I’m afraid.’ The
Sharpe family estate has many black moths, which are also a representative of
the Sharpe siblings. The butterflies would be the women they murdered for their
inheritance.
Let’s take another scene for example the first
shot of Edith and Tomas arriving at the Allerdale Hall in their carriage. The
scene starts from a low angle then a zoomed in dolly shot is used to move the
attention from the carriage to the gates of the Allerdale Hall, adding a bit of
mystery and giving the assumption in the audience that the place will have a
significant role throughout the movie. The shot then slowly moves to an extreme
long shot, establishing the surrounding and the mood- the 'blood red' crimson
peak clay, which makes you feel almost uncomfortable, in contrast of the brown
surrounding land, the grey cloudy sky, the one tree that captures the attention
,the falling leaves ,and the Allerdale Hall in the centre of the whole picture.
Even without watching the movie the scene gives the feeling of loneliness,
sadness and coldness. And finally the non-diegetic music giving that cold tone
to the whole picture, making you feel almost nostalgic and sympathetic, to
everything that is going to happen but hasn't happened yet. The duration of the
shot is very short, but just enough to prepare the audience and set the tone
for all that is about to happen. In the
next scene once the camera zooms out then zoom in again following not the
carriage but Billie we move from medium long shot to medium mid. shot with the
camera tilting slightly each time a character is speaking or making a movement.
As Billie is being introduces to Edith by Thomas as he refers to her as
"My wife" to which Billie responds "I know my lord, I know,
you've been married a while.” At first you may think, maybe Billie is just
confused old man or he’s crazy and you quickly forget about his words, although
you still find yourself searching for a cue of what he could have meant by
that. Then on their way in a dog shows up from nowhere ,but Edith don't seem to
find that strange either at all even after Thomas saying there is no other
house for miles. So far Edith is looking more like a naive child rather than a
woman, not paying attention to her new home, where even the ground bleeds…
The next
scene is where Edith wakes up in the middle of the night for the first time. We
can see she is in pain, by the look on her face. The mise-en-scene starts with
a close up on her face followed by a zooming out dolly shot. The sinister
atmosphere is created by using dim low hard lighting. The colours play an
important role in the scene as everything is painted in green to begin with,
and we symbolise green with 'safety' or 'nature' etc. which conflicts with the
rest of the settings, as in this time we don’t feel safe, for example Edith is
wearing a white dress ,with her hair down, looking so vulnerable ,like a child,
while the settings ,the house looking empty, the diegetic sounds we hear- when
the ghost of the women who were murdered in the house, before Edith comes out
of the floor, her groans and the fact she is covered in red contrast with that
idea of safety. When she comes out of the floor she is shown from the back from
a low angle as she is on the ground, making Edith looking more powerful, then
the scene moves fast witch each shot having a very short duration, with close
ups on how Edith pics up the dog, as he is the only thing with her at the moment
,and she doesn’t want to stay alone, then a zoom in dolly shot is used followed
by a tilt so we see how the cage elevator is going down with Edith looking at all
directions in fear. Towards the end of the scene ,when she is in the 'basement'
the lighting is still low with the camera switching from long shots, to close
up of Edith’s face while she is trying to find what the box with the initials
of E.S could stand for. Before the scene ends we see her reading the name
'Enola' engraved onto the locker, which ironically when turned around creates
the word 'Alone' , which later on in the movie we find its the name of Thomas'
last wife. Maybe the idea of the name is that all women that the Sharp siblings
have murdered were chosen, as they were all rich and alone or perhaps it’s
another metaphor of how all women has dyed alone with no one waiting for them.
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