Full disclosure: I’m a big Guillermo del Toro fan, he’s one of my favorite directors. I’m biased towards whatever he has a hand in, I like his quirks and indulgences.

Crimson Peak is a place that should be swallowed by the ground it was built on to bury all the horrors that it holds. As awful as the place is, it makes a great setting for a fun, gothic horror movie with crazy characters and eye-popping visuals.

Edith Cushing, an inspiring author and only daughter of the wealthy businessman, Carter Cushing, comes to a crossroads after a terrible accident. Seeing little to keep her home, she’s whisked away to England by a charming and mysterious man she barely knows. This quick courtship lands Edith on the doorstep of her new husband’s estate where his sister also lives. Ignoring the warning signs, Edith has been led into a damned relationship.

I’ll start with the good. As with all of GdT’s films, Crimson Peak is a gorgeous movie. A wild color palette that changes from mood to mood, sumptuous costumes, striking production designs in props and sets, and ghastly creature designs with expertly integrated special effects. A great cast brings each character to beautiful and tragic life (I didn’t recognize Jessica Chastain until I saw her name in the credits. Lucille is a Grade A nutter).

The problem, I think, is in the pacing and story structure at the start. A runtime of an hour and 50 minutes, it takes 40 of those minutes to get to the Crimson Peak estate where the movie hits its gothic stride. While Edith is kept in the dark until it’s too late, the audience isn’t so a lot of tension and suspense never materializes.

Crimson Peak is framed as a story told to us by Edith. It starts with her as a child when the ghost of her mother visits her and delivers a cryptic warning. Then, when a man named Thomas Sharpe comes into Edith’s world years later, she’s visited again and given the same warning. These visits, especially the first one, inspire her to write which builds her a backstory and purpose as a character, but as a plot device ends up being easily ignored. I think that set up, as cool and creepy as it comes across on screen, tips off the audience too much (and the first visit is something like a decade from the danger coming. That’s some time to give a warning that no on would ever be able to figure out. Ghost Mom is psychic I guess). Plus, the foreshadowing goes completely overboard when the Sharpe siblings are introduced. It’s clear to anyone watching that they are trouble. Thomas is good at wearing a mask in public but forget Lucille. Sure the crazy details of their secrets are kept close to the chest and make for great scenes in the last act, but it ends up feeling like there is nothing to figure out as you watch.

That said, the beginning is good, I do like a lot of it. It works to complete the narrative, flushes out the characters and there are more than a few beautiful shots (this is a GdT film). It just slows down the movie so much. I think a 5-8 minute cut to the first act could have changed the pacing and the story arc for the better.

I like Crimson Peak but found many early decisions weighed down the movie in disappointing ways. It’s not nearly as spooky or as scary as I thought it would be (and should be) and that’s a shame. While expertly cast (Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston have great chemistry), I think the editing robbed a lot of power and potential from del Toro’s latest.