VOICES FROM KRYPTON: Guillermo Believes in Ghosts

Part of what makes Guillermo Del Toro the accomplished horror director that he is comes from his belief in just what parts of the supernatural are fact and not fiction. In our exclusive interview, he tells us what parts of that helped him construct the scares on his newest film, CRIMSON PEAK.

Transcript

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The voices from Krypton. I'm Ed Gross, this is Voices from Krypton and we have it on good authority that ghosts are real. That authority is represented by no less than Guillermo del Toro, whose latest film is Crimson Peak, a 19th century ghost story set in a crumbling mansion in rural England.

There Sir Thomas Sharp, aided by his sister, Lady Lucille Sharp, begins to play out a game of manipulation with his new bride, Edith Cushing. Results of which, and not for the first time, have deadly consequences. I recently had a brief sit down with Guillermo in which we discussed his approach to filmmaking, his creative influences, and his passion for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

But beware of Crimson Peak spoilers. How much do you love playing with the sounds and everything and orchestrating the sounds in the sense of, I'm sitting in this theater and I'm hearing a drip and I'm hearing a creak and I'm hearing the wind. And I just don't know if that's you, if that's your sound people.

That is you. I mean, so you really like see the entire thing. Yeah. I mean, we mix this movie, we have fully full complete mixes, about three complete mixes. And I kept tweaking it and tweaking it and tweaking it.

And we redesigned the sound design about three times. I hired two sound designers at the end with their entire teams. I recorded the music 12 times. Really? Yeah.

And I discarded about 30% of the score and remixed it without score. And I mean, it's an aspect, I can tell you exactly what is happening on the channels as we watch it. And I can tell you what elements we're using. If you tell me what is this sound, I can tell you the sound.

I can tell you that we use, for example, a baby cooing and crying for one of the ghosts. I can tell you that we use the pork rinds to use the sound of the knife going into the cheese. Really? Yeah.

That's interesting. Okay. That we, I mean, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, we can really talk for hours about it. And the same goes to the visual design of a film.

I think that if you don't oversee every aspect of filmmaking, as far as I'm concerned, you're not directing. You know? But in your mind, can go to all those different areas and keep track of, that's amazing. Seriously.

I don't know if it's amazing, but it's obsessive. Impressive. It's obsessive. Impressive. I'll go with impressive.

That's much better than obsessive. Thank you. My wife says obsessive. Okay. There you go.

Fair enough. It's funny because one of the things I thought you did was a nice twist is the way the movie was set up, I thought really by the end of the movie, those ghosts were going to get up and basically take care of, eta. Thank you.

Oh my God. I can't believe I forgot a name. I'm sorry. And yet it was the opposite. Really hard taking care of them freed the ghosts in a lot of ways.

What I wanted to do very much is, and for a while there was a version of the screenplay where that happened. With the ghosts. Where the ghosts appeared at the end. And I felt that was too symmetrical.

That was too tit for that. And I thought, I'm going to have one ghost show up at the end that really matters to Lucille. And I'd rather have that ghost alone than see everyone. And I think it works better for me.

Oh yeah. No, it definitely works. I mean, obviously you have these things you love, but is this the particular passion, this type of gothic story, is this really the thing that gets you going creatively in general?

I think that this is one of my three favorite movies I've ever done. I think without a doubt for me, it's the most beautiful movie I've ever done. I think in terms of fabrication and craftsmanship, it's the most polished movie I've ever done. And I do think that I could live in this world and this period and this type of movie for the rest of my life without a problem.

But that said, if I'm invited to revisit Hellboy or I'm invited to revisit Pacific Rim, I'll go gladly. I was joking with somebody the other day when they came to visit me at the house on my mancave. And it's two houses of collection separate from the family home with secret passages and secret doors behind paintings and stuff like that.

And they were looking at every room and they said this, and I said, this is the Robert and Kajur room. This is the Victorian room. This is the steampunk room. This is the Jack Kirby room.

And they said, well, every movie you've ever done is here. I go, and every movie I'll ever do. Every influence you mean is there. Right. Yeah.

Every time I make a movie, I'm articulating a side of my personality that is very important for me. Fair enough. Making Crimson Peak, what does it have an influence on you? And I mean, earlier you said you could live in this era forever.

Are you actively trying to find another project that can keep you here in a sense? Well, one day I'll do my Frankenstein, right? One day I will. And my Frankenstein is period. So one day I hope to tackle it.

I hope to tackle Mountains of Madness, which is later, a little later, but not by much. It's a couple of decades later. Right. Frankenstein, though, is that something that you're not ready for or people aren't ready to let you do it?

No, I think I'm sort of daunted by the fact that it's my favorite book ever written. I think that I'm very daunted by that. I don't want to screw it up. And I wish I was less of a chicken chicken and got to write it. Can I ask why that's your favorite book of all time?

What is it about that? When I read it, I had already seen the movies and loved Boris Karloff and all that. And then I was, I don't know, 11 or 13. I don't remember. Probably 11.

And I picked up the book and I read it and I thought, dear Lord, no one has made this movie. This is such a powerful story and no one has made it. You mean an accurate version of the book? Because the closest it's ever gotten is Frank Darabont's Screamsley that got discarded for

the Kenneth Branagh version. But I'm curious enough, another version that comes close to the spirit, even though it's completely different than the book is Frankenstein the True Story. Just thinking of that one. That's the TV thing.

The TV thing that combines ETA Hoffman with Mary Shelley, with the name Pauli Dori who created the vampire. I mean, it's a mishmash of Gothic, but it actually is very, very beautiful. It was written, what's his name? The same way that wrote Cabaret and the Ice Shorewood, Christopher Ice Shorewood.

Brilliant writer. What is it about ghosts that you think that the whole notion of ghosts has such a powerful hold on us? Is it just because we miss these people or is it something more? I have experienced two ghost experiences.

You have? Yes. I'm not at all in doubt. I happen to think that the whole psychic phenomena, I don't believe in. The whole idea of psychics.

The whole idea of psychics, I don't believe in. I think it's called reading. I'm a skeptic, but I do believe in ghosts. I think that one day, 20 years from now, somebody will say, oh, it was this. And there will be a perfectly boring explanation for it.

But in the meantime, I can tell you they're real. The only three things that have happened to me in my life that are weird is one UFO encounters and two ghosts. Really? Yeah.

But other than that, I'm a skeptic. It's funny. How are you a skeptical? You've seen these things. I've seen them, but everything else needs to be demonstrated.

You have to actually see it for yourself. Yeah. If you tell me PSI or you tell me psychic telekinesis, you need to demonstrate. I don't automatically believe in any of that stuff. I can't believe in the things I've seen or heard in the case of the ghosts.

But the UFO, I saw it as clearly as I see that building. And at the same distance, by the way. Right. That's amazing. What fuels the creative vision for you?

Is it just your background and all the things you love, or is there other things going on in your mind? I don't even know if that's a clear enough question, but I just tried to get an idea of where all this crap comes from. I think as you grow, your concerns grow with you, but you're still in the zone.

I mean, I read between the ages of seven and 17. I basically read at least a book every day. That's thousands of books. And those stay with you. I keep reading.

I read a book a week now. I'm very slow or maybe two times sometimes. But they stay with you. And then you spend the rest of your life trying to make sense of those emotions. And I think in my case, I do it through through fable or strange stories, you know, like having

kids made me do Penn's Labyrinth. Having kids that I admire that are very strong females made me want to do the character of Edith. You know, so it's things that happen in your life, you know? It's the mix of it all.

Yeah, it is. I mean, look, I've never done a movie that I don't fully believe in. I've never done a movie that I'm not prepared to like even have a heart attack for. I don't care. I haven't yet.

Good. I'm not saying I want life changes. Thanks for listening to Voices from Krypton. I'm Ed Gross and I'm getting out of here while I still can.