Crimson Peak: 8 Reasons 2015's Biggest "Horror" Is A Massive Disappointment

5. The Bizarre Use Of The Ghosts

The ghosts in Crimson Peak are metaphors for the past. Or rather, they're meant to be - along with it not being a horror, that's one of the not-so-subtle parts of Edith's meta-explanation of the film. And good thing she says that, because if I'd not heard that I'd have just assumed they were plot devices. Yup, while they may be used for genuinely chilling moments, the ultimate purpose of the ghosts in the story is to push Edith along in her discoveries, near the end literally pointing her towards the next big twist. That would be fair enough (well, a bit annoying given the laziness, but bearable) if there hadn't been such a clear insistence that there was a thematic purpose to the spirits. Being from the past (which, due to the linear passage of time, is the only place ghosts can come from outside of the mind of Christopher Nolan) doesn't mean that the spirits immediately become all-encompassing embodiments of it. The furthest the film obliquely goes is making them symbols of the Sharpe siblings' former indiscretions, which is a pretty tepid notion.