During the Legendary Pictures’ panel at Comic-Con this year, Guillermo Del Toro managed to make us even more hype for Crimson Peak than we(e) already were by talking about how the movie plays on gender norms and the “damsel in distress” trope.
From Comic Book Resources:
“I wanted to create a really classical, lush, lavish gothic romance that hasn’t been done for a while, said del Toro. “It’s a female-centric movie that has strong protagonists.” The director explained that he has daughters and a wife, and he wanted to steer away from the genre’s usual damsel-in-distress formula. “It has twists that, shall we say, are more gender-liberating. I wanted it to be scary and I wanted it to be gorgeous. It’s one of the three favorite movies I’ve done and it’s the most beautiful movie I’ve made.”
Usually I bristle when a male creator cites his romantic partner or female family member as a reason for caring about women (shouldn’t you just empathize with us because we’re, you know, humans, bruh?) but given Del Toro’s awesome track record of female representation, I think his comments still bode well.
Bring on the feminist horror movie, please!
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