01
The Lair of the White Worm
Why this pick
Russell again turns literary Gothic material into flamboyant, erotic, darkly comic hallucination, with grotesque imagery and an enjoyably excessive sense of menace.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1986 1h 24m GBR
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Gothic
DramaFantasyHorror
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Gothic, try these.
01
02
The Devils
Why this pick
Its feverish blend of religious hysteria, sexual provocation, historical pageantry, and aggressively stylised horror closely matches the delirious theatrical force of Gothic.
03
Altered States
Why this pick
A headlong descent into visionary body horror, driven by Russell’s maximalist imagery and a mounting nightmare logic rather than restrained realism.
04
The Company of Wolves
Why this pick
This ornate, sensual fairy-tale nightmare shares Gothic’s dream-within-a-dream atmosphere, erotic unease, elaborate production design, and fascination with stories becoming dangerous.
05
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Why this pick
A visually ravishing Gothic fantasia where innocence, desire, Catholic imagery, and menace blur into a surreal dreamscape with an unstable, uncanny tone.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Through her stepsister Claire Clairmont, Mary Shelley and her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley come to know Lord Byron. During the summer of 1816, Lord Byron invites them to stay for a while at Villa Diodati in Switzerland. There they meet Byron's physician friend, John William Polidori. On 16 June, while a storm rages outside, the five of them amuse themselves by engaging in a game of hide-and-seek. Later in a parlor, Percy proclaims his fascination with science; Polidori tells him of his interests in sleepwalking and nightmares. Lord Byron shows his guests ''Phantasmagoria'', a book of horror stories he purchased from a shop in Geneva, and the three alternately read excerpts. This inspires them to hold a séance gathered around a human skull, during which Claire has an apparent seizure. Mary describes them as Claire's "horrors," and recalls instances during their childhood when unexplained phenomena would occur during them, such as Claire's bed inexplicably shaking, and doors slamming shut by themselves. Polidori brings Claire upstairs to rest.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Gabriel Byrne
Byron
Timothy Spall
Dr. Polidori
Alec Mango
Murray
Tom Hickey
Tour Guide
Chris Chappell
Man in Armour
Andreas Wisniewski
Fletcher
Dexter Fletcher
Rushton
Ken Russell
Tourist