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GOTHIC
I’m one of the very few people you’ll find (worldwide) who’ll admit to liking this movie. It’s an ostensible historical rendering of the night Mary Shelley conceived the idea for FRANKENSTEIN, filtered through the mad vision of the one and only Ken Russell.
The Package
The subject of GOTHIC (1986) is one of apparently endless fascination to
writers and filmmakers (Ivan Passar’s more stately 1988 film HAUNTED SUMMER
covers the same territory), and seems a natural for Ken Russell, the British
“bad boy” behind bizarre and flamboyant masterpieces like
THE DEVILS (1971),
TOMMY (1975) and LISZTOMANIA (1976--yes, I DO include LISZTOMANIA in the
masterpiece category...ya got a problem with that??). GOTHIC, the first in a
four-picture deal Russell had with the now defunct Vestron Pictures back in the
eighties (which would come to include SALOME’S LAST DANCE, THE LAIR OF THE WHITE
WORM and THE RAINBOW), fits in well with the above films: it’s completely nuts
from start to finish and plays hard and loose with the facts.
The “facts” as we know them are these: Mary Shelley, (then known as Mary
Godwin) on the night of June 16, 1816 (although many scholars claim the
following events actually took place over a period of several nights),
accompanied her future husband Percy Shelley to a séance at the Geneva home of
Lord Byron. Also in attendance were Dr. Polidori, Byron’s physician/full-time
hanger-on, and Mary’s half-sister Claire Clairmont, who was carrying on an
affair with Byron. According to most accounts Byron read from a book of horror
stories that unnerved Percy to such an extent he had a vision of a woman with
eyes in place of nipples. Byron then decreed that everyone at the gathering
write his or her own scary story. Based on his suggestion, and a horrific
vision she experienced later that night, Mary Shelley penned what is probably
the most enduring horror/science fiction tale of all time: FRANKENSTEIN.
The Story
Percy Shelley and his future wife Mary arrive at the villa of their
hedonistic friend Lord Byron. Together with Byron’s equally nutty companions,
Percy and Mary imbibe liquid opium and let Byron take control of the
proceedings. He reads a creepy story and scares them all, causing Percy to
seriously freak out and hallucinate a woman with nipple eyes. Up to this point
(about the half hour mark) the story more or less conforms to the facts...but
not the rest of the film!
Byron encourages everyone to conjure up their greatest fears and call them
to life. A bad idea, as it turns out: before long Claire is crawling through
mud with a rat in her mouth, a vampire dwarf visits Mary in her sleep and Percy
experiences a second vision of the nipple eye lady. Also on hand is a headless
piano playing mannequin, a horny mechanical woman, a particularly “animated”
skeleton and a monstrous undead fetus.
The Direction
GOTHIC will never be counted as one of Ken Russell’s best films, but it is
a FREAKY one. The opening scene, in which two young women swarm Percy as he
steps off a boat, is edited and scored like the climax of a LETHAL WEAPON
movie...and that’s just a taste of the unfettered insanity to come. Russell,
making his first all-out horror movie, succeeds in creating a frenzied
atmosphere of druggy, subconscious fear, bolstered by an outrageously insistent
synthesizer score by Thomas Dolby.
From a narrative standpoint the film isn’t anything to
shout about (and no wonder: screenwriter Stephen Volk’s other major writing
credit is on William Friedkin’s awful horror pastiche THE GUARDIAN), and it
certainly won’t please those looking for a straightforward history lesson. Such
things don’t seem to interest Russell, however, who makes no apologies for his
love of shock and excess. It seems it’s those qualities that have inspired so
many mainstream critics to dismiss his work, which is, in truth, damned
impressive. The filmmaking has a slick, confident sheen and a real personality
(something you definitely don’t see too much of these days). The authentically
surreal, disturbing images Russell conjures are as startling as those of David
Lynch. As one critic said of Russell’s TOMMY, it’s probably best to simply sit
back and let the film assault you.
The cast, for its part, is as spastic and apparently lobotomized as you
might expect if you’ve read the above plot synopsis. Still, Gabriel Byrne makes
quite an impression as the demonic Lord Byron, and the gorgeous Natasha
Richardson, in her film debut, carries the film with grace and confidence,
making for a good counterpoint to all the craziness.
Vital Statistics
GOTHIC
Virgin Vision/Artisan Entertainment
Director: Ken Russell
Producer: Penny Corke
Screenplay: Stephen Volk
Cinematography: Mike Southon
Editor: Michael Bradsell
Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson, Myriam Cyr, Timothy Spall,
Alec Mango, Andreas Wisniewski, Dexter Fletcher, Pascal King, Tom Hickey, Linda
Coggin, Chris Chappel, Ken Russell