Russell’s exuberant style is perfectly suited to a libertine story which finds entirely visual means for showing the complex, often grotesque workings of an author’s imagination. It is a reflexive orgy of future horrors.

…one of the best films from a lauded British director…Gothic has appeal for literary and horror fans, and its critique of male excess is one that still feels pertinent today…

It's a fortuitous gathering of creative minds, expressed via Russell's vision (and Thomas Dolby's gloriously anachronistic score) as a fever dream, a séance, a nightmare, a seduction and an exorcism - and it is glorious.

I'll take my Byron and Shelley straight.