Guillermo Del Toro reflects on the poor reception of Crimson Peak

While Guillermo Del Toro films his latest horror film, he reflects on how Crimson Peak should not have been promoted as such.

Horror film enthusiast and director Guillermo Del Toro is currently at work, bringing his new incarnation of Frankenstein to life. And while he is in production, the director shares with fans that he’s also staying at an old 1800s hotel, which seemingly gave him the creeps as he felt he couldn’t stay there anymore. Del Toro posted to his fans, “UPDATE-. I can only say:. Nothingbhas happened yet, but the atmosphere in the room is opressive and I am not gonna spend much more time there.  It may be suggestion, but at this point I kept it but am sleeping in another room- I need 6 hours of sleep to have a good shooting day- Im stopping there early and late in the day- but something is in that room with me…  If anything happens or Nothing does expect one or two more updates.”

Whatever may have been in the room with him, that’s not the only thing haunting the Pacific Rim director. Vulture recently sat down with Del Toro and the original Hellboy filmmaker spoke candidly about how the negative reception of his 2015 film, Crimson Peak, still affects him. Del Toro was asked how he felt about how it’d been received now that time has passed and he replies, “The thing that will always, pun intended, haunt that movie is that it was sold as a horror movie. But I remember distinctly, when we had the meetings [about promotion], they were all targeted toward getting the horror audience for the opening weekend. And I knew we were doomed! I was saying, ‘You should promote the romance, and you should promote the mystery. The last thing you want to do is promote it as horror.’ We were opening in October, and October is the month of Halloween, so I understand why it happened.”

He continues to say that he’s finding peace with it more and more as the film slowly collects its audience, “But, you know, it’s a movie that connects with the people who love it at an almost molecular level. Little by little, some movies gather their audience through the years. Some others are very successful right when they come out, then you don’t hear from them again. We can have every variation. I’m finding that I’m happier when I’m in a relationship with people who truly find a movie and own it.”

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.