Gothic

Director Ken Russell's spellbinding (if somewhat fictionalized) account of the 1816 meeting between poets Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) and Percy Shelley (Julian Sands), writer Mary Godwin (Natasha Richardson), her stepsister Claire Clairmont (Myriam Cyr), and Dr. John Polidori (Timothy Spall) is a blend of occult fantasy, drug-induced dementia, and hidden desires. During a stormy night at Byron's isolated villa, the ghost stories spun among the guests would eventually inspire Godwin to write "Frankenstein."