Crimson Peak

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Actors: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston

Year: 2015

Erotic Rating: 🍑 🍑

Film Rating: 🎥 🎥 🎥 🎥

Summary

In turn-of-the-century America, aspiring writer Edith falls for a charming English baronet with sad eyes and a crumbling mansion. Ignoring her ghost mom’s very clear warning, “Beware of Crimson Peak”. She marries him and moves into his gothic estate, where the walls literally bleed red clay and secrets. Haunted by ghosts and increasingly suspicious tea service, Edith uncovers a twisted web of murder, incest, and inheritance schemes between her new husband and his unsettlingly intense sister. It’s a feverish mix of romance and rot. Part ghost story, part doomed love affair, drenched in red and decay.

Hot Take

This film keeps getting suggested as one of the top “erotic” films. Sure, there’s some intense chemistry between the leads and an even stranger, taboo tension with the main character’s sister but I wouldn’t put it up there with the truly erotic greats. That said, the film leans heavily into gothic sensuality: stolen glances, lingering touches, and a dark romanticism that feels both seductive and unsettling. It’s visually stunning and eerie, and it’s undeniably a Guillermo del Toro film: beautiful, atmospheric, and tinged with darkness. If you’re into artsy, ghost-filled, paranormal period-piece horror with a seductive edge, I highly recommend it.