Del Toro unleashes genre's gothic tropes

DARK and stormy nights are the norm at Allerdale Hall, the decrepit ancestral home of Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), a dashing, swoon-inducing Englishman who seems to spring straight from the pages of a corny romance novel.

As plotted by Guillermo del Toro in Crimson Peak however, Sir Thomas and his creaky fixer-upper have secrets to hide - the kind that send chills up the spines of unsuspecting guests.

One such guest is Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), a young author who - as it happens - has been visited in her youth by an apparition in the form of her dead mother, warning her to "Beware of Crimson Peak" (cue scary music). Edith hails from America and has come to northern England after being wooed and won by Sir Thomas.