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

2. There's Random Time Jumps (And Other Cases Of Poor Pacing)

Even without the obvious foreshadowing and "wait, what" continuity errors, the opening of the film feels rather sloppily constructed. We meet Edith, follow her trying to flog her book and meeting Sir Thomas, who she falls for because, well, he's Tom Hiddleston and it all looks like we're heading along on the creepy path set out by the trailer. And then all of a sudden she's visiting Dr. McMichael to talk about his previously unmentioned fascination with finding ghosts in the real world. Wait, what? Where the hell did that come from? Yeah, Crimson's Peak plotting is really rather confusing, with scenes coming out of nowhere and several massive time jumps that randomly advance Edith's terror or Lady Lucille's creepiness. Things get particularly bad around Dr. McMichael; everything to do with Hunnam's character feels rather out of place, as if he was inserted into an already finished script so del Toro could offer the Son's Of Anarchy actor another movie role in lieu of the never-happening Pacific Rim 2. He pops up randomly throughout the middle act in various states of curiosity complete independent of whatever's happening over in England. When so much of the film feels like it's going for a rather operatic storytelling approach, this scattershot structure really drags it down, making having any idea what's going on (and, with the overly obvious dialogue, knowing what the characters know) impossible.