The wall separating what happens in the mind of Guillermo Del Toro and what appears on screen is often no thicker than his skull. Del Toro has always had a knack for creating vibrant and imaginative worlds, rich with detail and symbolism, and breaks down any barrier between the film he envisioned and the final product; it can be best described as directorial stream of consciousness. Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone, Pacific Rim; only a mad man could have produced these movies and only Del Toro could have created such uncompromising visions of what goes on in his head (and his little notebook). But even the sharpest minds have the dullest of thoughts. Its not that Crimson Peak is particularly boring or outright bad, but when you’ve become accustomed to the disturbed, anything less feels like wasted potential.

Crimson Peak is visually stunning in the truest sense of…