Movie Review: Ken Russell’s ‘Gothic’ (1986)

If you’re at all a fan of the story of Frankenstein, from the novel itself to depictions in cinema, you’ve likely heard of the Haunted Summer that inspired young author Mary Shelley to create one of the first sci-fi stories. A high-intensity, wide-angled, borderline neurotic retelling of the Haunted Summer, Gothic (1986), directed by Ken Russell—who is known in horror circles for The Devils (1971)—inspires anxiety, humor, and a wonder at just how far off from reality this portrayal of events actually was. 

The Haunted Summer, arguably one of the most important events early in horror’s literary history, occurred in 1816, when Mary Shelley and her husband, renowned poet Percy Shelley, visited Lord Byron in Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, with Byron’s physician, John Polidori, and Mary’s step-sister and mother of Byron’s child, Claire Clairmont, also in attendance. Largely stuck inside due to the weather, the group passed the time by writing and telling ghost stories, resulting in the creation of Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, and Polidori’s The Vampyre, among the earliest installments in vampire literature. (Some writers suggest that the use of opiates among the group helped trigger the events that led to the creation of both Polidori’s and Shelley’s works.)

Where to watch Gothic:

Streaming information by

Gothic, a high-strung retelling of these events, immediately sets a frenetic tone that is seemingly mismatched with innocent scenes of running and mischief-making toward the beginning of the film. Though this sets the high-keyed tone for what’s to come, this choice, paired with the fixed wide-angled perspective that prevails throughout much of the film, makes for an emotionally disjointed watch that renders emotional accessibility difficult. After the first fifth of Gothic, events continue to escalate, and score and story eventually match pace, unveiling a dizzying whirlwind of anxiety that feels impossible to look away from.

Natasha Richardson does an exemplary job portraying Mary, giving the audience a character who serves as the only emotional anchor in ever-worsening conditions (including Percy standing butt naked on the roof in a thunderstorm, yelling about the animating spirit of lightning). Julian Sands as Percy reveals a delightfully mentally off-in-the-woods performance, though Gabriel Byrne as Byron seems to fade into the background. A hedonistic counterpoint to Mary’s relative composure, Myriam Cyr as Claire delivers a wild, almost feral femininity in her performance that is difficult to rival. Timothy Spall, as Dr. Polidori, likely best known for his role as Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies, also strikes an apt souring note of anxiety with Polidori’s knowledge of medicine. 

Gothic (1986).

One of the more interesting choices in Gothic—other than the surprising depth with which this film engages with important themes around imagination, necromancy, and the possible—was the choice of the catalyst of the horror being a collection of horror stories called Phantasmagoria. In the very early days of what could be considered cinema, phantasmagoria was a form of horror theatre best known for terrifying audiences with projected images of skeletons, ghosts, and demons. The events that threaten to unravel the sanity of all those at Villa Diodati are largely a mental phantasmagoria, especially considering the filmic focus on Byron and Percey’s atheism.

Gothic also engages extensively—and viscerally—with the horrors of having a uterus, and by extension pregnancy. Between Claire’s miscarrying while Byron is performing sexual acts on her and Mary being haunted by the child she herself lost, it’s beautifully simple to draw these connections to the birth of the Frankenstein story, an established critical approach to the work in literary circles. Taking this a step further, Gothic also shows us the potential horrors of the imagination coming to life through art itself, with Henry Fuseli’s well-known painting “The Nightmare” making an appearance, and the demon in the painting—itself hardly larger than a toddler—coming to torment Mary in her own disjointed, terrified state.

Gothic is a worthwhile watch for Frankenstein nerds and those looking for an off-the-rails '80s flick that drags the viewer’s sanity along for the ride at Villa Diodati. Engagement with themes found in Shelley’s novel are surprisingly thoughtful, giving Gothic a depth I was not anticipating from a film that I took at face value as nothing more than '80s cheese. Gothic, with a similar frenetic energy to Sheitan (2006), which came out a couple of decades later, is really for those who enjoy asking themselves: “What in the world did I just watch?”

---

Article written by Laura Kemmerer

Laura tuned into horror with an interest in what these movies and books can tell us about ourselves and what societies fear. She is most interested in horror focused around the supernatural, folklore, the occult, Gothic themes, haunted media, landscape as a character, and hauntology (focusing on lost or broken futures).