Charlie Hunnam's Crimson Peak Remains a Misunderstood Masterpiece 10 Years Later

Charlie Hunnam is well known for his roles in Children of Men (2006), Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014), Pacific Rim (2013), and Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023). While Hunnam may not be the most prolific actor, he is a phenomenal performer who throws himself fully into his roles. One genre Hunnam hasn't really touched is horror, though. There is only one horror movie in Charlie Hunnam's 30 acting credits on IMDb, and that movie is Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak (2015).

Crimson Peak flew under the radar when it first came out on September 25, 2015. The film made just shy of $75 million on a $55 million budget, which certified it as a cinema flop. Crimson Peak later picked up speed on streaming services, especially when it hit Netflix in 2021, but it's a shame that it didn't perform better in theaters. Due to its poor revenue, many people, even die-hard horror fans, wrote the film off as bad. In truth, it's one of the best supernatural horror movies of the last decade.

Crimson Peak is the Classic Haunted House Trope With a Twist

Crimson Peak is a Gothic romance and supernatural horror film that takes place in 1887. The story centers around a young female writer named Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska). Edith is the daughter of a wealthy businessman, which gives her a certain amount of independence that most women of the time simply didn't have access to. Edith is far more concerned about making a name for herself in the writing world than pursuing a suitor, that is, until she meets a charming baronet named Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), who is visiting Buffalo, New York, looking for investors for an invention he's been working on. One of the investors he meets with is Edith's father.

Thomas' brooding and unapproachable sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain), accompanies him to the States, often seen in the background while he charms the people around them. While stateside, Thomas and Edith become emotionally attached, which blooms into a beautiful, young romance. Edith's father disapproves of Thomas and goes to great lengths to dig up dirt on him and his elder sister. He attempts to split Thomas and Edith up, but when he falls victim to a mysterious murder, Edith falls into Thomas' arms, feeling as though she has no one else to depend on.

Edith then moves to England with the Sharpe siblings, where they reside on a remote plot of land that's rich with valuable clay. The mansion they live in, Allerdale Hall, is rundown and slowly sinking into the soft clay beneath the house. Allerdale Hall received the nickname "Crimson Peak" because, during the winter, the clay in the ground would turn the snow bright crimson. When Thomas refers to his ancestral home as "Crimson Peak," Edith gets her first real taste of realizing her father may have been right about the Sharpes, and that marrying Thomas may not have been in her best interest.

You see, when Edith is first introduced to the audience, she presents a novel that is all about ghosts. A publisher advises her to scrap the ghosts and focus on a romance story instead, which is what readers would expect from a female author. Edith's fixation on phantoms isn't that abnormal, though, as she is sometimes visited by spirits in her sleep. Shortly before she met Sir Thomas Sharpe and his sister, the ghost of her mother visited her and offered a cryptic warning.

Thomas and Lucille use the wealth Edith's father left her to fix up the house and fund Thomas' invention, a machine that will easily extract the valuable clay from the ground. Thomas and Edith grow close, but Lucille remains cold and distant. The longer Edith stays in Crimson Peak, the weirder things get for her. She sees numerous spirits haunting the halls. At first, she is afraid of the ghosts, but eventually, she learns that they're actually trying to warn her about her future fate. Edith's health also begins to wane the longer she stays in the decrepit mansion.

Eventually, Edith uncovers the horrible, dark truth about Thomas and Lucille. They're lovers. At first, Edith believes that they lied about being siblings to cover up their relationship, but the truth is so much worse. Lucille is Thomas' older sister, but they were so isolated and abused throughout their childhood that they eventually turned to one another for support, care, and above all, love. Worst of all, Lucille has been poisoning Edith since she arrived at Crimson Peak, slowly killing her so they would have her money and each other after Edith's death.

After their father lost the family's fortune and left them to fend for themselves, the Sharpe siblings turned to a horrible con to get enough money to stay afloat. Thomas, ever charming, would seduce a lonely and wealthy woman without any connections. She would come to Crimson Peak with her new husband, where Lucille would slowly kill her. The siblings did this time and time again. Whenever they needed more money, they would find another woman Thomas could seduce, who no one would miss. Those dead women now haunt the halls of Crimson Peak, attempting to warn Thomas' newest bride.

The only thing that gets in their way is that Edith is different. Edith has powerful connections with her father and Dr. Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam), a doctor who clearly took a liking to Edith. Thomas also genuinely falls in love with Edith, something that Lucille tries to be in denial about, but it becomes very obvious. He consummated their marriage, something he never did with any of the other women. He shares his inventions with her, which is his safe space, and something that he holds very dear. He even attempts to persuade Lucille not to kill Edith, and warns Edith not to drink Lucille's tea when Lucille refuses.

Crimson Peak Uses a Taboo Relationship to Explore the Dark Side of Love & Shared Trauma

Crimson Peak touches on some very taboo topics, the most obvious being the incestuous relationship between Lucille and her younger brother, Thomas. Lucille and Thomas' relationship is always portrayed as uncomfortable, even before the big reveal of the nature of their relationship. Thomas is genuinely kind and well-meaning, while Lucille is cold, closed off, and dismissive. Thomas desperately wants to be free of the life he lives. That becomes very obvious throughout the story, but he isn't strong enough to pull away from Lucille. When Thomas tries to stop Lucille from harming Edith, she insists that they must keep going, and he crumbles under her wishes.

While Thomas is portrayed as following Lucille's lead, he is still complacent in it. Lucille points out that he never liked to get his hands dirty, but he is still actively involved in the murder of numerous women. Without him, their con would never work. Both Sharpe siblings are monsters that the ghosts haunting Crimson Peak desperately try to warn newcomers of. At the same time, their story is one of tragedy. They are victims of abuse and isolation, so, understandably, they become so unhealthily codependent on one another. Well into their adult lives, they are doomed to repeat the pattern of abuse of one another over and over again because they see no other way.

At least, Lucille doesn't. Thomas does, it just takes him falling in love with someone else, someone who acts like a shining light at the end of a dark tunnel, to finally see his escape. He finds that with Edith. Lucille and Thomas' relationship explores the dark and twisted aspect of love, the side that no one wants to talk about. Love, however, is not a good or evil thing; it's just a feeling. It's up to the couple to dictate how their love blooms or withers.

Lucille and Thomas are the product of isolation and a trauma bond, where they continue to feed one another's worst coping mechanisms. They're harming one another, but they've convinced themselves it's the only way to live and survive. They become so codependent on one another, they stop seeing other people as actual people; they just become tools to meet an end. They turned into monsters to protect the toxic love that bloomed between them. Their "love" has become an obsession and an addiction. Lucille even admits as much to Edith. She knows she has allowed herself to become twisted and dark in the name of keeping Thomas at her side.

Crimson Peak also cleverly explores the catastrophe that happens once that obsessive codependency is shattered. When Thomas finally rejects Lucille in favor of protecting Edith, something deep within Lucille snaps. In her fury, she stabs Thomas in the face. Her rage leads her to kill the only person in her life she ever claimed to love. The person she had always meant to protect, as she was the elder sibling, and needed to shield him from the worst of the world.

Crimson Peak is a ghost story, but not about the actual ghosts. Yes, there are ghosts throughout the film, but the real ghosts are Thomas and Lucille. They are trapped in the past because of the suffering they endured that led them into one another's arms. Their refusal to get better and to make healthy changes in their lives eventually leads to their undoing. As long as you live in the past, you can never hope for a brighter future. Lucille and Thomas might have been alive, but they were dead long before Edith came along. As Edith says to her publisher, the ghosts are just a metaphor.

Ogilvie: A ghost story. Your father didn't tell me it was a ghost story.

Edith Cushing: Oh it's... it's not. It's more a story with a ghost in it. The ghost is just a metaphor.

Ogilvie: A metaphor?

Edith Cushing: For the past.

- Edith speaks with her publisher about her latest novel in Crimson Peak (2015)

Charlie Hunnam Plays a Relatively Minor Role

It may be surprising that Charlie Hunnam hasn't been mentioned much so far. That's because Hunnam plays a relatively minor character in Crimson Peak, Dr. Alan McMichael. Dr. Alan is Edith's childhood friend. He clearly carries a torch for her, one that Edith does not reciprocate. Despite the unrequited love, Alan never treats Edith poorly. He always has her best interest at heart and accepts that she doesn't love him the way that he loves her. Despite this, he is still happy to be in her life and even does his best to be happy for her when she forms a romantic relationship with someone else.

After Edith leaves the States with Lucille and Thomas, Alan uncovers what Edith's father learned about the Sharpe siblings. Thomas has been married multiple times, all to women who have mysteriously disappeared. Lucille spent a significant chunk of time in an asylum. As Alan realizes that Edith is in danger, he makes the long trip to England, where he travels to Allerdale Hall to rescue Edith from the Sharpes before it's too late. When Alan arrives, Lucille stabs him and then instructs Thomas to finish him off.

Thomas, however, can't bring himself to kill this kind man who loves Edith as much as he does, if not more. Instead, he injures Alan and pretends to kill him to satisfy Lucille. Alan and Edith eventually flee Crimson Peak together. Alan may not be a major character in the story, but he is an important one. He may not be a real love interest for Edith, but he is a shining example of what love should be. You put the people you love before yourself. You accept their choices. You want them to be happy. You help them when they need it, but you don't become overbearing, controlling, and suffocating. Alan also proves that love comes in all forms. It does not need to be romantic or sexual to be meaningful.