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Lurid, kitschy, over the top--what more does one expect from Ken Russell, director of
The Devils,
Tommy, and
Altered States?
Gothic purports to tell the story of a night that Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and the future Mary Shelley spent at a country estate and decided to write ghost stories--a night that ultimately resulted in Mary writing the novel
Frankenstein. These three and a couple of friends romp around the mansion, freaking out at shadows and the sounds of a storm, getting increasingly hysterical and hallucinatory as the night progresses. Thrown into the mix are a mechanical belly dancer, nudity, walking suits of armor, an orgy, séances, grotesque masks, leeches, a pig's head, stigmata, snakes, and God-awful dialogue like "
We are the gods now--we have dared to call ourselves creators!" Gabriel Byrne (Byron), Julian Sands (Shelley), and Natasha Richardson (Mary) are all terrible; it's a miracle any of their careers survived. But good or bad isn't really the point with Ken Russell, who aspires to a kind of visual delirium.
Gothic isn't the masterpiece of excess that
The Lair of the White Worm is, but towards the last half-hour it does achieve a creepy state of disorientation entirely suited to its subject matter. Russell isn't afraid to be trashy in the pursuit of unfettered cinematic symbolism. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.
--Bret Fetzer
Review
Gothic is not a movie for everyone -- a qualification that can be applied to almost any Ken Russell film -- but those who respond to it will respond very strongly indeed. The good news is that even those for whom Gothic is not really their cup of tea should at the very least find it engrossing, if perhaps too gross for their tastes. Compared to some of his 1970s excesses (Lisztomania comes immediately to mind), Gothic is relatively restrained. There are still plenty of moments to cause discomfort, but they're more at home here in what is, after all, really a horror movie. That, as it turns out, is one of Gothic's problems: it strays too far from the accepted limitations of the genre to satisfy as a typical horror flick, yet its efforts at being something deeper are ultimately too superficial for it to succeed as anything else (a character study, a historical account, a philosophical dialogue, etc.). Still, on a strictly visual level, there's a great deal to admire in Gothic, from its stunning Mike Southon cinematography to its grotesque special effects to its razor-sharp editing. It's also blessed with actors who, while they can't always triumph over some of the excesses of the director, still manage to craft compelling, provocative portraits. Gothic is too uneven to satisfy most people, but many will find that its highs more than compensate for its lows. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
