When aspiring author Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) goes to see an editor about a story she has written, she responds to his describing it as a ghost story by saying that it's actually "a story with a ghost in it." A similar sentiment could be applied to the film in which she finds herself, since Crimson Peak is not a horror film, but a film with horror in it. While it does feature spurting arteries, decaying corpses and a haunted house, most of those elements are employed sporadically, or are restricted to the film's exuberant finale. For most of its running time, it's a Gothic romance with a dash of sinister mystery thrown in for flavour.