Gothic (1986) review

Poet Percy Shelley (Julian Sands), his wife Mary (Natasha Richardson) and Claire Clairmont (Myriam Cyr) visit Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) and his pal Dr. Polidori (Timothy Spall) at Villa Diodati, a mansion Byron rented in Switzerland, where they spend the night drinking too much funky juice (which was supposedly laced with opium) and challenging each other to come up with a 'scary story' ... and then they start acting like idiots.  Anyone familiar Russell's filmography should be aware of his penchant for hysteria and encouraging his performers to over-act, which is exactly what happens here: Shelley strips naked and climbs to the rooftop during a lightning storm, Byron gropes everyone, Polidori voluntarily impales his hand on a spike, there's a nude demon squatting on a bed and Claire has eyeballs for nipples (Thomas Dolby's tacky score makes it even worse).  While clearly embellished to the umpteenth degree, there are seeds of truth in there: the lads were addicted to laudanum, Byron did have a club foot and most of them died very young ... and apparently this gathering did help produce Polidori's The Vampyre and Shelley's Frankenstein.