The Corner Penthouse

Gothic arrives on Blu-ray as the 13th entry in Lionsgate's Vestron Video Collector's Series, "a line of classic genre films newly remastered and with a wealth of supplementary features." I have reviewed several other titles in the series.


A sprawling villa in Switzerland is the setting for the night of the "Haunted Summer," when five famous friends gather around an ancient skull to conjure up their darkest fears. Poets Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) and Percy Shelley (Julian Sands); Shelley's fiancee, Mary Godwin (Natasha Richardson); Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont (Myriam Cyr); and Byron's friend, Dr. John Polidori (Timothy Spall), spend a hallucinogenic evening confronting their fears in an orgiastic frenzy of shock lunacy that 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. On one fateful evening in 1816, two legends were born, in Ken Russell's Gothic.

That's how the back of the Blu-ray case describes the movie, and it's as good of a plot synopsis as I could provide because, to say this film is bizarre, is an understatement. It seems that director Ken Russell was more interested in wild and crazy visuals than in telling a cohesive story. It's the type of film where you really just need to shut your brain off and go along for the ride. Let the visuals wash over you rather than trying to make sense of them.

The performances by all five main actors are good, if a little over the top - though that could be due to the material. Most memorable, to me at least, is Myriam Cyr. With her big mane of curly hair and her even bigger eyes - both pairs - she's the standout to me, and the only reason to bear with the film.


The score by Thomas Dolby - of "She Blinded Me With Science" fame - is heavy on synthesizers, but fits in with the frenetic action of this British horror film, even if at times it draws a little too much attention to itself.

At a runtime of 1:26:53, Gothic is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. Picture is crisp and clear with no issues that I noticed. On the audio side, there's an original 2.0 DTS monaural audio track, which is loud and clear.


A small selection of new special features were created for this release, which mainly consists of interviews with the crew, and all of which are in HD.

• Audio Commentary with Lili Russell (director Ken Russell's wife), in conversation with film historian Matthew Melia.
• Isolated Score Selections & Audio Interview with composer Thomas Dolby conducted by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Productions.
• The Soul of Shelley (17:53) - an interview with actor Julian Sands
• Fear Itself (17:26) - an interview with screenwriter Stephen Volk
• One Rainy Night (23:09) - an interview with director of photography Mike Southon
• Theatrical Trailer (2:17)
• Still Gallery (4:08) - 43 images (all nearly full-screen; there's a little bit of a border/background image)
• TV Spot (0:34)

The gallery includes the usual publicity photos, along with movie posters, promotional ads, soundtrack album cover art, and the such. Some of the photos were obviously scanned in from a printed source (such as a press book), and some were downloaded from the internet - such as image #37 (the ad with the "The Thinking Man's Nightmare on Elm Street" quote at the top), which bears a partially removed "eBay" watermark. Oops.


The film contains 12 chapters and includes English SDH and Spanish subtitles. The first print run includes a slipsleeve.


Gothic is a hard film to recommend because it's rather scattershot in its execution, preferring to concentrate on the visuals than on its story. I can't say that I overly enjoyed the film, but I didn't hate it, either.

Final Verdict: Recommended, to fans of the film, obviously. All others should rent/stream it first, and if you find yourself liking it, buy it using the appropriate link below.


As of right now (updated 1/30/2018), the Vestron Video Collector's Series includes the following Blu-ray releases, all of which contain new bonus materials just like the one I reviewed.




Most of the images used come from the still image gallery on the disc. The Blu-ray has been provided by Lionsgate for review on this site.