Guillermo del Toro’s Mom Inspired One of ‘Crimson Peak’s’ Most Chilling Scenes

Before Guillermo del Toro brought the ghosts of Crimson Peak to the screen, his mother had her own haunting story. As a child mourning her grandmother, she recalled hearing the rustle of a silk dress, smelling her grandmother’s perfume, and feeling a weight settle against her back. Decades later, her account inspired the chilling opening of her son’s gothic romance.

Del Toro’s 2015 film Crimson Peak follows Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), a young woman who marries Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), a mysterious British aristocrat. After moving into his family’s sprawling gothic mansion in the countryside, she discovers its sinister secrets—and the ghosts living in its walls.

While the film is a fan favorite for its gothic atmosphere and twists, its opening draws on a story much closer to home. In 2015, del Toro told Cinemablend:

“My mother’s grandmother died, and when she was a child she was crying in her bed, and she heard the silk of the dress of her grandmother move in the corridor. She smelt her perfume, heard the bed springs creak, and felt the weight of her grandmother leaning on her back. She jumped up screaming and left the room.”

His mother’s story fits into a broader well of inspiration. Raised in Guadalajara, del Toro has long drawn on Mexican culture’s spooky legends and spirituality. With films such as Crimson Peak, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone, and most recently, Frankenstein, he has established himself as one of Mexico’s leading filmmakers in horror, fantasy, and science fiction. At a 2015 press conference in New York, he said that his way of seeing “monsters or ghosts is very Latin.”

This October, we’ll revisit Crimson Peak with his mother’s story in mind—a reminder that one of del Toro’s most haunting scenes began with her own account of grief and a ghostly encounter.