Though marketed as a horror film, as one character describes its own source material, it’s not so much a ghost story as a story with ghosts in it.

In this swooning Gothic saga, Mia Wasikowska is an American heiress wooed and won by a creepy penniless aristocrat (Tom Hiddleston, a plot device) who, along with his equally creepy sister (Jessica Chastain, masterfully stretching her range as a hateful villainess) has a hidden agenda.

The true star of any Guillermo del Toro film is the tactile production and costume design, and any story would take a backseat to these sumptuous visuals. But scary? No. (119 min)