It’s finally fall. The time of year for hot chocolate, big sweaters and most importantly scary movies. As a thriller fanatic, I’m always excited to see what new horror films are out each Halloween season. But this year, I was more than disappointed. With Crimson Peak, Goosebumps —which is closer to comedy than horror— and yet another Paranormal Activity to choose from, my options were limited. I soon realized I was going to have to pick the best out of my choices and reluctantly decided to go with Crimson Peak. Directed by Guillermo del Toro and containing well-known actors such as Tom Hiddleston, this movie was set up to be the climax of all Horror films this October. However, it was anything but that. Set in the turn of the 20th century, this movie did an excellent job portraying the era with beautiful wardrobe and an old-timey atmosphere, but that’s pretty much the only good thing about Crimson Peak.

First off, this movie is horror but isn’t really scary. It’s a romance but isn’t really romantic. Crimson Peak tries to be multiple genres but never achieves any of them, making it frustrating to watch. This movie is a prime example of style over substance. It had a great setting, and its wonderful production design is not a surprise for a del Toro film, but the content of the movie was disastrous. The plot was boring and difficult to understand. The lack of characters and character development made the “surprising” plot twist easy to guess. This so-called horror film had one jump scare, if that, and the house from the movie poster doesn’t even show up until an hour in. Way too much time in this film was spent building up tension, and for what? There was no distinct scene that had me jumping out of my seat or even had me interested at all. Watching paint dry was more scary and more interesting than Crimson Peak. I recommend that instead of seeing this movie, you should save the $12 and find one that is better (and cheaper) on Netflix.

Some shallow movie viewers might enjoy Crimson Peak because of its appealing set up, but if they actually pay attention to the plot, they’ll see that there are unnecessary scenes, a not-so-creepy aura and an overall a messy timeline. Watching Crimson Peak was like getting a huge present on Christmas and opening it up only to find a $10 Walgreens gift card inside. The packaging was great, but what it contained was immensely disappointing.