As Guillermo del Toro fans will know, his gothic romance/thriller “Crimson Peak” opened to a mostly warm critical response, but lukewarm showing at the box office this weekend.
The hope for the film is that it can gain momentum with international audiences as “Pacific Rim” did. “Crimson Peak” is a lush, but far more intimate film than his Jaeger vs. Kaiju extravaganza. Yet, it is the film”s supernatural elements that may work against it in one significant market: China.
“Crimson Peak””s central conceit is that “ghosts are real”…All too real. In fact, that procuration is the very first line of dialogue spoken.
Unfortunately, as The Atlantic reports, China”s Film Bureau doesn”t allow movies with supernatural elements to screen within their boarders, as they “promote cults or superstition” which is contradictory to the “Communist Party”s secular principals.”
There are ways around the policy, which include re-cuts which indicate that the ghosts are little more than visions, hallucinations, or illusions, but “Crimson Peak” is about a world in which ghosts are unequivocally, absolutely, and irrevocably real…So, the studio may be stuck between a poltergeist and a phantasm on this one.
I guess we know who they're NOT gonna call come 2016.