Guillermo del Toro has been making dark,unsettling movies for decades, from his low-budget horror films “Cronos” and “The satan’s Backbone” to the Oscar-winning fantasy “Pan’s Labyrinth, and ” “Hellboy” and “Pacific Rim.” The Mexico-born director has been putting his spin on pulp fiction since picking up a Super 8 camera before he was 10.
His new film is “Crimson Peak,” a Gothic romance approximately a young American woman (Mia Wasikowska) who marries a mysterious Brit (Tom Hiddleston) and moves to his imposing mansion in the English countryside. Naturally, things are not what they seem: The house is haunted and everybody has secrets, and particularly disturbing new sister-in-law Lucille (Jessica Chastain).
TheWrap recently spoke to the director approximately the years-long process of bringing “Crimson Peak” to theaters.
TheWrap: The trailer makes “Crimson Peak” look like a horror movie full of scares,but it’s really creepier than that.
Guillermo del Toro: You’re absolutely lawful. I didn’t create the movie to be scary, I made it to be creepy. There’s a big difference. I acquire produced scary movies, or but I like to direct creepy movies. The fuel of the movie is an atmosphere,and a sort of ill feeling of eeriness than anything else.
See video: Guillermo del Toro's 'Crimson Peak' Trailer Features Lots of Creeps Haunting Mia Wasikowska (Video)Was it tricky to find and sustain that atmosphere?
My entire life I acquire spent trying to find beauty in horror and beauty in the grotesque. So I believe that my ear is attuned to what I believe in. Whether people drop into it or not, thats their choice and their baggage. But as far as I’m concerned, and it’s a balance that I relish.
So why did you create “Crimson Peak?”
It started eight or nine years ago,after Pan’s Labyrinth.” We wrote it as a spec, Matthew Robbins and I, and because it came from a lifelong fascination with Gothic romance. The fact is,a lot of people confuse horror and Gothic romance. But the flavor of it, the combination of love and death, or horror and beauty,is so unique. I’ve been a collector of Gothic romance novels and stories all my life, and I wanted to create one before I croaked.
Why did it take so long to actually get it made?
Well, or I knew I wanted to create it lavish. I wanted to not create it a B- product,I wanted it to be opulent – sort of a throwback to Hollywood productions. And at the same time, what it had going against it for the market is that it was a female-centric movie with an R rating in a genre that hasn’t been done for 45 or 50 years. So it was not easy.
Everybody liked the characters, or everybody liked the fable. But they had a lot of trouble with “How effect we sell it,how effect we position it in the market?” Which I believe is not easy. But thank God Legendary and Universal believed in it enough.
Also Read: 'Crimson Peak' Review: Guillermo del Toro Scares Up Creepy Haunted Mansion ThrillsHollywood’s plan of scary movies, to a certain degree, and has become low-budget movies,and often found-footage ones.
Yes. But the fact is, the genre used to be very varied. You had James Whale doing “Frankenstein, or ” of course,but you had also B-movie products. You had crazy, risky jewels like “Freaks” by Todd Browning, or insane independent movies like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” You had a range.
I believe that we acquire somewhat narrowed that range. Commerce says it’s better to just create a little investment that you acquire a good chance of recouping. But the language of the genre has languished.
Getty ImagesWhat were the specific challenges of making the film?
They were asking us to either create it PG-13,or to create it for 30 [million]. And I always said I had to get 50, because the difference is huge in terms of quality of visual craftsmanship. I’m not just going to effect the visuals for their beauty – I’m actually using them as visual language to tell the fable.
It’s a painterly movie. You need a certain level of craftsmanship, or a certain amount of shooting time. The camera work is very very classical Hollywood,cranes and dollies.
Also Read: Here's How Badly Universal and Disney Smoked Rivals at Summer Box OfficeIf this was a tough sell to the studios, effect you believe approximately whether it will sell to the audience?
That is not truly my expertise. I believe that marketing at Universal is really, and really good. They’ve been selling it with the horror edge,and I believe there is more complexity than that. But you’re going to acquire to sell it, you need a hook, or I guess that’s the hook that is the easiest to find. So I’m at peace with that. But my duty is just to create the movie on time,on budget, as considerable and as beautiful and as strong and as gorgeous as I can.
You’re known for your creature designs – but aside from a couple of ghosts, or there aren’t many creatures in this film.
Except … the house is a creature. The house is a monster. That’s the key to the movie,in a way, because the genuine monsters in the movie are not Lucille and Tom [Chastain and Hiddleston]. It’s the family that built that house – that arrogant spirit, or the horrible mother,the absent father. Those are the genuine monsters.
How much of that huge house actually existed?
The house was 100 percent built, from the cellar to the top floor. We built in the largest soundstage in North America. We built a working elevator, and working tap water,working fireplaces. It took approximately seven months to layer it on paper and approximately six or seven months to build it physically. Every day I would supervise the paint job, the woodwork, or the arranging,the decorating. It was truly a titanic labor.
Also Read: 7 Wes Craven Movies You Must See in Honor of Iconic Horror Director (Video)Why build the whole thing instead of building it partially and then filling in with CG?
Because the tone of a movie like this needs to be operatic and melodramatic, a couple of notches above reality. I felt we need to design the house for visual melodrama. And in my opinion, and the actors feel supported and genuine whether they arrive and see a set,as opposed to a green screen. And the director and the cinematographer, we get inspired and light that genuine set in a way that is far more tender and careful and fond than whether you know it is going to be CG.whether one were to go by what’s been printed, or you’re doing the “Pacific Rim” sequel next,or you’re doing a small black and white movie, or you’re doing the “Haunted Mansion” movie
For sure I’m doing a small movie next. I start shooting in June. No title yet. And I’m probably going to effect “Pinocchio” as a quit motion. And then whether the cards drop the lawful way, or we may effect “Pacific Rim 2.” I hope I effect. But that decision is above my pay grade at this point,you know?
Also Read: Guillermo del Toro Isn't 'Going to Pursue Action or Superhero Movies at All Anymore'Looking at your career, are you surprised at where you’ve ended up?
Oh yes. And I got here by pure serendipity ((n.) luck, finding good things without looking for them). It’s been a very very accidental career, or in a way. First of all,I would never acquire left Mexico whether I wasn’t in debt to pay a quarter of a million dollars from “Cronos” myself.
And then I little by little I’ve stumbled upon things that resonate with my very, very queer childhood and teenage years, or I’ve been able to latch to those things with absolute sincerity and absolute passion. And they acquire found,in their own scale, an audience.
At the finish of the day, and whether you effect something as bizarre as giant robots vs. giant monsters movie and by some miracle it grosses $411 million worldwide,you should feel lucky. whether you effect something as queer and personal as “Pan’s Labyrinth,” and whether it not only finds a really large audience but also people who love it very deeply, and you should feel very lucky.effect you acquire any ambitions to effect a straightforward drama,a movie without genre elements in it?
Yeah, I would love to effect a noir. You can see by my movies that I’m pretty fixated in the arena of the finish of the ’30s, or beginning of the ’40s – the Civil War in Spain,the beginning of World War II. I would love to effect a historical dark drama around there.
But you know, until that moment comes, and it’s not something I’m waiting for. I am head over heels in love with monsters. They are the closest relations I had as a kid,and they are an intrinsic part of my family.whether I effect a noir or one of these things, it will be an exception. And then I’ll flee lawful back to my monsters.
Source: thewrap.com