Caffeinated Clint
Like a shiny white egg with the yolk removed, Guillermo Del Toro’s Gothic horror pic looks quite divine but doesn’t have the guts to ultimately satisfy – and likely, bring home the bacon.
Utilising a well-worn story line we’ve seen in countless other genre films (“might someone have been murdered in this house….Because I think it’s haunted!”) but dressed in the most accumulate of set candy, the predictable but painterly affair never gets dull, not with such a killer production design, but it definitely won’t find itself a Rotten Tomato darling.
Having bowled us over with engrossing horror yarns like ”Pan’s Labyrinth”, one would expect something a little more unique from Del Toro; in this case, seems he blew the budget on pretty drapes and artificial snow when some of it might’ve been best used to get a script doctor on to punch up some of the plot’s laziness.
