
The year is 1816. A sprawling villa in Switzerland is the setting for a stormy night of madness. On this night of the "Haunted Summer," five famous friends gather around an ancient skull to conjure up their darkest fears. Poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, Shelley's fiancée Mary Godwin, Mary's stepsister Claire Clairemont and Byron's friend John Polidori spend a hallucinogenic evening confronting their fears in a frenzy of shocking lunacy. Horrifying visions invade the castle - realizations of Byron's fear of leeches, Shelley's fear of premature burial, Mary's fear of birthing a stillborn child - all brought forth in a bizarre dreamscape. They share the terrifying fantasies that chase them through the castle that night. The events of that night later inspired Mary Shelley to write the classic "Frankenstein" and Dr. Polidori to pen "The Vampyre," which became the basis for the creation of Dracula..
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Gabriel Byrne | Byron |
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Julian Sands | Shelley |
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Natasha Richardson | Mary |
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Myriam Cyr | Claire |
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Timothy Spall | Dr. Polidori |
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Alec Mango | Murray |
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Andreas Wisniewski | Fletcher |
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Dexter Fletcher | Rushton |
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Pascal King | Justine |
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Tom Hickey | Tour Guide |
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Linda Coggin | Turkish Mechanical Woman |
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Kristine Landon-Smith | Mechanical Woman |
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Chris Chappell | Man in Armour |
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Mark Pickard | Young William |
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Kiran Shah | Fuseli Monster |
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Cosey Fanni Tutti | Shelley Fan |
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Kim Tillesly | Shelley Fan |
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Ken Russell | Tourist |
Director | Ken Russell |
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Writer | Stephen Volk, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley | |
Producer | Al Clark, Penny Corke, Robert Devereux, Robert Fox | |
Musician | Thomas Dolby | |
Photography | Mike Southon |
Nr Discs | 1 |
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Audio Tracks | English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround |
Subtitles | English | Spanish |
Owner | Review? |
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Location | Horror Disk 1 |
Purchased | Mar 22, 2020 |
Quantity | 1 |
Watched | Apr 17, 2020 |
Index | 1433 |
Added Date | Mar 22, 2020 10:16:48 |
Modified Date | Jan 30, 2025 11:29:34 |
My quick rating - 5,5/10. Well, it does still hold up. Bizarre tale of the night that lead to a couple fo the greatest horror stories of our time to be written. A trippy tale led by a great performance by Julian Sands watching a group of people being confronted with their greatest fears in a hallucinogenic dream like state. Visually very appealing and one that you may remember after the credits roll. Even if some of the points kind of are just dangled out there and incomplete, as a flick it is still quite good, just not great.
IMDB |
TheMovieDb.org |