IMDb RATING
5.7/10
8.9K
YOUR RATING
The Shelleys visit Lord Byron and compete to write a horror story.The Shelleys visit Lord Byron and compete to write a horror story.The Shelleys visit Lord Byron and compete to write a horror story.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations
Chris Chappell
- Man in Armour
- (as Chris Chappel)
Cosey Fanni Tutti
- Shelley Fan
- (as Christine Newby)
Kim Tillesly
- Shelley Fan
- (as Kim Tillesley)
Ken Russell
- Tourist
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Stephen Volk
- Lord Byron(uncredited)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe painting that Mary Shelley sees on the wall, and that subsequently comes to life in her dream, is Henry Fuseli's "Nightmare."
- GoofsClaire Clairmont (Myriam Cyr) falls out of the rowboat in the opening scene, but just a few seconds later, as she's running with Percy toward the house, her clothes and hair are totally dry.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Tour Guide: And there, ladies and gentlemen, on the other side of the lake we have the famous Villa Diodati where Lord Byron, greatest living English poet, resides in exile. Romantic, scholar, duelist, best-selling author of Childe Harold, he was forced to leave his native land after many scandals including incest and adultery with Lady Caroline Lamb. "Mad, bad and dangerous to know" she called him.
[the guide squeezes a lady's hand and points]
Tour Guide: Bedroom - top right.
- Alternate versionsAmerican versions contain a title-card before the credits. This title card contains Mary Shelley's quote from the foreword to Frankenstein where she discusses the night the movie centers around. A brief explanation is then provided mentioning that both Frankenstein and Dracula were born on that night.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: Project X/Wild Thing/Heaven/Gothic (1987)
Featured review
Looks great, sounds good, but a load of dull, pretentious, perverse dreck
The writer of Frankenstein (Natasha Richardson), her beau (Julian Sands) and half-sister (Myriam Cyr) visit the mad, bad recluse Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) at his lavish estate on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. There they meet Byron's equally bizarre physician friend (Timothy Spall) and spend the stormy night of June 16, 1816, in hallucinatory revelry, including a challenge to write a spooky story, which gave birth to Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and John William Polidori's "The Vampyre," the first published modern vampire story.
The premise of "Gothic" (1986) is great, the first act is interesting and the short epilogue is effective. Unfortunately, the hour in between is meandering, hedonistic, perverse, outrageously overdone and utterly tedious. I can handle the unsavory elements (and expected them) as long as the story is compelling, but that's not the case. It's basically a string of coked-up theatrics and perversions in an attractively gothic setting.
Speaking of attractive, one of the few consolations is the jaw-dropping Natasha Richardson in her prime. She was Liam Neeson's wife from 1994 until her death in 2009 from a skiing accident.
If you want to see a gothic flick set in the 1800s that's actually decent, check out "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). For a movie that treads similar terrain that's really good and in some ways great see "Marie Antoinette" (2006). "Gothic" is trash by comparison and fittingly bombed at the box office. Sometimes director Ken Russell's unique projects work, like "Altered States" (1980), but not this.
The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot at Gaddesden Place & Wrotham Park in Herfordshire, England. Thomas Dolby wrote the score, his first and last.
GRADE: C-/D+
The premise of "Gothic" (1986) is great, the first act is interesting and the short epilogue is effective. Unfortunately, the hour in between is meandering, hedonistic, perverse, outrageously overdone and utterly tedious. I can handle the unsavory elements (and expected them) as long as the story is compelling, but that's not the case. It's basically a string of coked-up theatrics and perversions in an attractively gothic setting.
Speaking of attractive, one of the few consolations is the jaw-dropping Natasha Richardson in her prime. She was Liam Neeson's wife from 1994 until her death in 2009 from a skiing accident.
If you want to see a gothic flick set in the 1800s that's actually decent, check out "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). For a movie that treads similar terrain that's really good and in some ways great see "Marie Antoinette" (2006). "Gothic" is trash by comparison and fittingly bombed at the box office. Sometimes director Ken Russell's unique projects work, like "Altered States" (1980), but not this.
The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot at Gaddesden Place & Wrotham Park in Herfordshire, England. Thomas Dolby wrote the score, his first and last.
GRADE: C-/D+
helpful•71
- Wuchakk
- Oct 28, 2019
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $916,172
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $32,061
- Apr 12, 1987
- Gross worldwide
- $916,172
- Runtime1 hour 27 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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