A lot of fun.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Gothic is the earlier of the two films on the subject of the 1816 meeting of Shelley, Byron, Polidori and the half-sisters Mary and Claire. Gothic simply seems to lose all its substance underneath overly exaggerated style. I found no reason to like nor to care about the characters, even though the cast is certainly an illustrious and capable one.Haunted Summer gives a much more nuanced look at the lives, loves, and tragedies of these pivotal persons. Gothic has far too much running about in madcap antics with very little focus on what actually drove these people to become who they were -- or to end the way they did. I only own this DVD to use as comparative filmography. As such it is a fine example of how even the most competent actors can not save a film.

Director Ken Russell's Films are Nothing if Not Hallucinatory Hubris, Visually Stunning Excesses of Something Out of a Nightmare or Drug Induced. He Usually Ignores the Winds of Caution and Throws it Out and Makes Some Sensitive Viewers Throw Up, or At Least Throw Up Their Hands.Russell is Not an Easy Take, Not a Friendly Filmmaker and has Many Detractors. This One is No Exception. Bringing to Life, Stillborn Some Say, a Night of Real Life Eccentrics Like Byron Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Dr. Polidori.It is a Wild Weekend with Enough Bizarre Occurrences and Beholding Behavior to Fill a Gothic Novel. Hardly Any of it is Real and Comes from the Fertile Imaginations of the Party Goers. The Cast is Wonderfully Weird with Gabriel Byrne Leading the Pack of Misfits with Timothy Spall, Julian Sands, and Natasha Richardson. Thomas Dolby Provides the Intentionally Anachronistic Score.Overall, There is Nothing Quite Like a Ken Russell Film and His Fans will Probably Adore this One. Others Not So Much. It's Not Made for the Mainstream Who are Quick to Point Out How Much They Hate Him.It's Fascinating, Fun, Horrifying, Disgusting, Decadent, and Delightful. Especially If You Like to Wallow in the World of Drugs and Misanthropic Madness.

This ranks as one of the worst films I've ever had the misfortune to watch.The subject matter is something I find fascinating, a period when the two greatest Gothic characters were conceived and this is the best they could come up with to bring this time to life?! I thought more of Natasha Richardson and Timothy Spall than to stoop as low as productions of such poor quality.If a subject interests you enough that you would make a film about it why would you do such a horrendous job of it?! The first thing you notice is how terrible the soundtrack is. Even by the standards of 1986 the music sounds like cheap, out-of-date electronics all of which fail to capture any mood in the film.It soon follows that you notice how terrible the performances of the 'actors' are with everyone but Richardson over-acting and 'hamming' up their parts, making them all seem overly eccentric.If you have the chance to watch this film don't bother! Read Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' in stead. It'll take a lot longer but will be a far less waste of your time than this film.

I was so exited when i first heard about this film as i am such a big fan of Percy and Mary Shelley and Lord Byron. This film though was a total let down, casting was awful! Non of the actors seemed to have studied their characters and completely over acted making the film unwatchable at times, also the actors where obviously to old (Mary Shelley was meant to be 17 at this time!) and often some of them spoke you could not ascertain what they were saying as it was all "mad" ramblings.The supposed melodrama and shocking Gothic elements of the film were comical. The direction and script were terrible at best. The story line that supposedly showed the characters drug induced debauched lives was over the top and boring in its bad representation. The homo-erotic elements and free love were insipid and unneeded in how they were shown.I was very upset overall with this film definitely a 1/10 for this pretentious and awful unwatchable spectacle!