Stephen Volk - Gothic

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Stephen Volk - Gothic (Grafton, 1987)

Blurb:

"Conjure up your deepest, darkest fear. Then call that fear. Then call that fear to form..."

They joined hands around the séance table.

The lightning-obsessed Shelley, his timid 19-year-old mistress Mary Godwin, Mary's neurotic half-sister Claire, her lover the Satanic Lord Byron, and his strange companion Dr Polidori.

It began with ghost stories while the storm raged outside - and inside their fevered minds.

June 16th 1816 at the Villa Diodati. The famous night of inspired imaginations that created monsters.

Or was something real created that night?

Something born out of electricity and laudanum - formed from their most horrible secrets, congealed in jealousy, obscene lust, guilt and visceral terror.

Some all-powerful creature that vowed revenge on its creators.

Perhaps by morning they would escape the nightmare. If they were all alive by morning. If they were sane.

"To create a ghost story, what is that?" said Byron. "But to create a ghost..."

"Ken Russell is famous for nightmarish scenes in his films but he seems to have gone too far this time. Natasha Richardson says her part in his latest film. Gothic, was so horrific it turned her to jelly with it's scenes of leeches, rats and dead babies. Surely it's time Russell stopped producing this sick rubbish." - The People, March 8th 1986.

"Q. Gothic was premiered at the London Film festival. How was the film received?

Stephen Volk: Like a Ken Russell film. People liked it or hated it. That's fine. What I find annoying are the pendants who say they are pissed off because they believe Byron and Shelley weren't really like that. Well, nobody can ever know the absolute reality. I did research and I used what I needed for the purpose of a piece of fiction, not documentary ... the final product was Russell's unrestrained and uninhibited attempt to further explore irrational and creative states of mind.

"Five Go Mad On Laudanum" - Sunday Times, November 16th 1986.

All the above quotes are reproduced from Light And Shadow: Interview With Stephen Volk, The Goth Vol 11, January 1993.

Stephen Volk take on events at the Villa Diodati which would result in the creation of both Frankenstein and The Vampyre is fairly bizarre as it is, but imagine his enthusiasm when some Virgin hot-shot or other chimed in with: "How would this be if we lost the names Byron, Shelley, Polidori - after all, they were just wacky kids, yeah?" Having survived that potential disaster, Al Clarke then tells him he's found the only director who could do his story justice ....