10 Horror Movies That Aren’t About What You Think

2. Crimson Peak

crimson peak
Universal Pictures

I mentioned in the introduction how marketing plays a huge role in setting audience expectations, and Crimson Peak is one of the best examples of a movie's advertising completely misrepresenting its actual content.

Guillermo del Toro's gothic romance is certainly steeped in horror - there are supernatural creatures ready to deliver jump scares and plenty of gore to go around - but it's far from a conventional horror movie.

The trailer, however, sold it as your regular multiplex fare, a horror closer to The Conjuring or Ouija.

There's nothing wrong with those kinds of movies of course, but it meant that audiences going into Crimson Peak were expecting a straightforward ghost tale, and were left with a few scares, but mainly a family melodrama and a lengthy opening that keeps the horror elements to the minimum.

As one character makes clear, this isn't a ghost story: "It's more a story with a ghost in it. The ghost is just a metaphor."

Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.