Widescreen nominates a new Halloween classic: 'Crimson Peak'

I could use this space to give you another list of the classic horror movies you MUST! WATCH! this Halloween weekend to ensure a frightfully good time, but you could probably guess them all and I'd be telling you a lot of things you already know.

Instead, I'll campaign for just one title, a gothic horror film that could become a classic in years to come.

"Crimson Peak" opened last September and divided critics and audiences who were taken by its visual grandeur but put off by its tonal shuffle of creeping dread, over-the-top gore and unabashed romance. The ads seemed to promise a standard ghost-house romp, a la "The Haunting," but writer-director Guillermo Del Toro had something more fantastic in mind.

Mia Wasikowska ("Alice in Wonderland") plays Edith Cushing, a writer in turn-of-the-20th-century Buffalo who gets a late-night visit from her mother - her dead mother - before meeting dashing entrepreneur Sir Thomas Sharpe, played by the dashing Tom Hiddleston ("The Avengers"). Sharpe has a business proposition for Edith's dad (Jim Beavers of "Supernatural"), an industrialist who thinks the Englishman is up to no good, especially when he dances with Edith by candlelight. We the audience, though, are too busy being suspicious of Sharpe's sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain of "The Martian"), and with good reason.

Edith's father suffers a horrifying demise and the Sharpes whisk her away to the title setting, home of a clay mine and the most impressive haunted mansion since The Haunted Mansion. (Del Toro has long wanted to make a movie adaptation of the classic theme-park attraction.) I get swept up in the tragedy and ecstasy that follow as Lucille's revelations complicate the budding romance between Edith and Thomas.

The actors are excellent, particularly Chastain, playing against type. The mansion is a triumph of set design given life by Dan Laustsen's cinematography. Allerdale Hall's walls harbor deep, dark secrets and bleed red with clay. Butterflies and moths live in every nook and cranny. The grand staircase is twisted and decayed. Oh, and there are ghosts floating (and crawling) around - no big deal.

"Crimson Peak" played in IMAX theaters, so I urge you to watch it in HD on the biggest TV you can find instead of your iPhone. It's available digitally from iTunes, vudu, Amazon and all the usual places, but I highly recommend the Blu-ray package stuffed with extras; this was a passion project for Del Toro, and his enthusiasm in the included interviews is infectious.

Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald multiplatform editor. His favorite horror movie is "Poltergeist." You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.