As a storm rages outside, Lord Byron and his guests conjure up their deepest fears by means of a séance in Ken Russell’s wild tale of the origins of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

As a wild storm rages over Lord Byron’s literary house party, the poet suggests that his famous guests concoct a ghost story. But after deciding a séance would liven up the evening, they soon conjure up their deepest fears and are plunged into a surreal horror. Is it merely the power of their own intense lust and vivid imaginations that is tormenting them or have they, in fact, raised the dead?

Directed by cult favourite Ken Russell (The Devils ) and starring Gabriel Byrne (Hereditary), Julian Sands (A Room With a View), Natasha Richardson (The Comfort of Strangers) and Timothy Spall (Mr Turner), Gothic delves into the erotic and terrifying night on the shores of Lake Geneva that ultimately gave birth to Mary Shelley’s classic horror story Frankenstein.