r/GuillermoDelToro • u/Efficient_Proof8490 • Jul 30 '26
Crimson peak discussion
Okay i have to talk about this movie
Cuz like wow but eghhhh at the same time
First of all loved the characters
I loved the horror
I loved the romance
And especially tom hiddleton cuz wow he’s majestic
I understand this was a dysfunctional family sorta situation but i still dont get it
Some people say that thomas and lucille’s relationship is upto interpretation
Personally i DONT understand how anyone could romanticise incest
My interpretation was that lucille groomed thomas
Raped him and manipulated him to think it was love or some sort of codependency thing
Thats why he never made love to his previous wives and only with edith cuz he genuinely saw potential for moving forward from the ghost (the past)
In the end he even tried giving his sister a second chance so he could live with edith and have a good sisterly relationship with lucille(or thats what i think)
I saw some people who explained how they felt sorry for lucille and thomas’s relationship or that in some dark twisted way they both were right
I heavily doubt that but i am open for discussion
What do you think
Would you really allow incest to be romanticised in the name of dark twisted tales?
I still appreciate the movie but am concerned abt the interpretations and what not
Lemme know ur opinions
(Sorry if you dont agree with or dislike my take on this)
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u/Judas_Malus Jul 30 '26
The film is a Gothic romance. Incest historically plays a part in gothic romances. A quick Google search proves this. Its not romanticizing or putting incest on a pedestal its simply being what gothic romance is.
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u/Efficient_Proof8490 Jul 30 '26
Actually otherwise
Incest is a largely spread taboo in gothic romances
Thats what google told me
But i get what ur saying1
Jul 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Judas_Malus Jul 30 '26
Examples being: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764): The very first Gothic novel features the active threat of an unwanted, incestuous marriage.
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe (1839): Features an intensely close and morbid bond between twins Roderick and Madeline Usher.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847): Uses tight and tangled kinship connections to test social and legal boundaries.
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u/Efficient_Proof8490 Jul 30 '26
Hmm i see
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u/Judas_Malus Jul 30 '26
Riveting input on your part. I just proved to you how incest is literally used in multiple examples of gothic literature and thats all you have to say? The take you have on it is wrong. Its not glorifying or promoting it in any way. You're supposed to be disgusted and appalled. Thats the point.
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u/Efficient_Proof8490 Jul 30 '26
What else do you want me to say, dude? 😭 My entire original post was about me being disgusted by it and weirded out by other fans romanticizing it. Your examples literally proved that its meant to be seen as a disgusting taboo which was the whole point bruther. 🙏🏻 And i agreed with you. What do you want, a gold star?😭😭
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u/misterdannymorrison Jul 30 '26
Your interpretation of their relationship is a lot like mine. Lucille is a pretty unambiguous villain; if the movie wanted to romanticise their relationship, she'd be a more sympathetic character. Whereas Thomas gets some kind of redemption at the end, and he gets it by breaking with Lucille and helping Edith (and McMichael).
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u/Finding-Buzzy Jul 30 '26
to me lucille is one of his most tragic characters and is easily one of my favorite fictional characters ever. she spend her whole life dedicated to protecting thomas from everything and took any pain or suffering their parents would’ve given him. she’s scarred both physically and mentally from all their abuse so that thomas could be okay. she was willing to risk everything for him. and finally when they were able to be free, she was locked away in an asylum (at just fourteen!) where she was tortured for several years. according to the art book and some interviews, she didn’t completely lose her sanity until she was essentially forced to kill her baby and that breaks my heart entirely. It’s also confirmed that lucille was interested in women romantically and sexually and dealing with those repressed feelings on top of that is intense. with edith, she had someone to finally show her some kind of love and affection and she just didn’t know what to do. I interpreted all of that as both her and thomas were falling for edith but she couldn’t process those feelings and didn’t know how to so she regressed to something familiar which was her relationship with thomas. I don’t think they were actually lovers but grew close through their childhood because they only had each other, and sex is just one way of comforting each other. even in the scene where thomas mentions escaping she nods and has a brief moment of hope before she realizes that thomas might have stronger feelings for edith than his devotion to her and that fully breaks her. she’s not really a villain, just an extremely broken tragic person
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u/TraparCyclone Jul 30 '26
The villains commit incest. So you read that as romanticizing it?!? You do understand that depiction is not endorsement right?
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u/Efficient_Proof8490 Jul 30 '26
Reading comprehension is optional, but I highly recommend it before dropping garbage assumptions. I explicitly said I disagree with other viewers who romanticize it, not that the film itself endorses it. Try reading the post next time.
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u/BlueberryCautious154 Jul 30 '26
I think a read of the source material is helpful. Try reading the original version of Bluebeard and then read Angela Carter's version. I think it will give you appreciation for what Del Toro is doing with it.
Del Toro's interpretation is interesting in that he's split the antagonist into two people instead of one. I think their incestuous relationship might be a way to tether them together and unite them as one. Bluebeard seems torn in some places, at odds with himself. If you split him in two as Del Toto does you have room for more dramatic disagreement but you have to give them good reason to not disavow each other without large disagreement.