Released this past month on October 16, Guillermo del Toro's "Crimson Peak" achieved adequate sales at the box office and less-than-stellar reviews from critics. Only making an $18.5 million profit from its budget of around $55 million, and scoring an average score of 6.5 on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.6 on Metacritic, it would seem that the most recent film from esteemed director del Toro narrowly escaped from being branded a flop at both the box office and among critics. However, despite these unappealing accolades on paper, "Crimson Peak" is, in fact, a very misunderstood film. With gorgeous uses of color, skillful lighting, remarkable sets, powerful performances from its lead cast, dazzling costumes and makeup, an emotional film score, and a truly riveting story, all of these components come together to create a stunningly beautiful and immensely underrated film that legendary horror author Stephen King described as "Gorgeous and just f—king terrifying."

A pivotal reason as to why audiences and critics alike held "Crimson Peak" with such varied regard is because of the common misconception that it would be similar to other popular supernatural horror films of today such as "Insidious" and "Paranormal Activity." On Rotten Tomatoes, the genre is only listed as "horror," which is not entirely true. While websites like Metacritic do a more accurate job by listing its genre(s) as "Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror, Romance," director and writer del Toro himself described it as a "gothic romance" with elements of a "ghost story."

Gothic Romance, alternatively known better as Gothic Horror or Gothic Fiction, is a genre or approach to storytelling that does not just focus on elements of horror, but also incorporates fiction, death, and romance. Therefore, "Crimson Peak" was not made with the intent to be a film that prioritized style (terror) over substance (story), but to be its own multi-layered tale that strove to accomplish a balanced synthesis between said themes. There is even a scene in the first act of the film where protagonist Edith Cushing, an aspiring novelist, meets with her editor to discuss her newest story. When the editor expresses his surprise that Edith has written a "ghost story," she is quick to correct him and says that her story is not a ghost story—rather a story that has ghosts in them. A line of dialogue that not only established what kind of a character Edith was, it also acts as a form of foreshadowing to the viewer that "Crimson Peak" is not purely a horror film, or in Edith's terms, a "ghost story."

For audiences and critics who were attracted to the idea of a movie that garnered such high praise from Stephen King and allowed themselves to attain a high level of expectation from the film's advertising (which aggressively marketed the film as a haunted house film) they were very likely to have left theaters feeling unsatisfied and disappointed. Instead of seeing a film that was created with a primary focus of frightening the audience, they were greeted with a dark period drama that revolved around heavy subjects such as love, betrayal, secrets, and madness. That being said, a great deal of the film's reputation could be vastly improved by a simple and fair adjustment of expectations of the story's true genre.

In addition as to why this gothic drama is underrated the way it is, its strengths must be discussed and celebrated. With incredibly talented crew and cast at his service, del Toro was able to create a fascinating world where the locations and characters of "Crimson Peak" were real enough for his viewers to lose themselves in. Gorgeous uses of color and skillful lighting came together to help bring actors and actresses into the foreground of the scene, creating scenes that felt intimate for the viewers as well; remarkable sets gave stage to powerful performances from the key cast, establishing and maintaining powerful moods and atmospheres; dazzling costumes and makeup complimented each other to create an authentic, believable settings; an emotional film score juxtaposed with a riveting story helped forge a love story, tragedy, and ghost story like none other.

Although no longer playing in theaters, "Crimson "Peak" is another shining example of del Toro's imagination and flexibility when it comes to writing, filmmaking, and storytelling in general. Captivated with monsters and ghosts, he is able to move back and forth seamlessly between action films with more style over substance like "Pacific Rim" and gothic stories with more substance than style such as "Pan's Labyrinth." Perhaps later, or maybe never, "Crimson Peak" too will be considered one of del Toro's greats and come to be known by moviegoers as a remarkable film that boasted in both style and substance, but had the misfortune of being viewed by the masses with the wrong expectations.