...a Victorian Gothic pastiche by a filmmaker who knows his stuff, and as long as you don't expect to be surprised by its plot developments or subjected to a full-on horror, there is much to enjoy.

There are a couple of monsters (supernatural and human), but the gigantic emotions are the most terrifying thing onscreen.

The violence is shocking: just as in Pan’s Labyrinth, someone gets a grisly wound just below the eye, a particularly horrible idea, and there is also a stomach-turning battering with a blunt object.

Chastain’s performance—icy-cold, unblinking, and perpetually teetering on the edge of deranged—is a highlight.