Horror streaming service Shudder has released a trailer for its latest original, A Nightmare Wakes.
The gothic thriller dramatizes the writing of Frankenstein and the tumultuous love affair between renowned British writers Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The trailer, released on Jan. 8, gives a look at some of the visual horror sequences as well as the period costumes and opening setting of Lake Geneva, promising to show viewers the "birth of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." The film premieres on Shudder on Feb. 4, a few days after the 170th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s death in 1851.
The film opens with the real-life famous trip to Switzerland in the summer of 1816, where Mary Shelley (at that point, Godwin), her step-sister Claire Clarimont, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori spent several months living in a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva. The group of writers devised a competition to write the best ghost story. Whilst Byron and Percy Shelley's stories were never completed, the game produced not only Frankenstein but Polidori's short story The Vampyre. The trip also led to the writing of some of Percy Shelley's best poetry, including Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni.
From there, the events of the trailer take a more fantastical turn, as Mary’s gothic inspiration becomes a monstrous force compelling her to write. Reimagining true events from Shelley's life in a more supernatural light, the trailer suggests A Nightmare Wakes will be part truth, part fictional biopic.
Director Nora Unkel explained her hopes for the film: "Mary Shelley created science fiction as an entire genre and transfixed 1800s Europe in ways never thought possible. Shelley’s struggle with love, loss, abandonment by society and family and her own sanity had yet to be captured fully on screen. She lived a colorful life of love, drugs and freedom alongside some of the most celebrated artists of her day. With A Nightmare Wakes, I hope to leave Shudder members enraptured by Shelley’s chilling, intimate, and dark narrative, inspired by how much her story is, in fact, our own."
Shudder general manager Craig Engler added, "Mary Shelley helped create two of the most popular genres in cinema, horror and science fiction. Yet her story has too often fallen beneath the shadow of the iconic monster she created. With A Nightmare Wakes, Nora Unkel gives us an opportunity to see Mary in a new light, and to appreciate her accomplishments anew."
The film premiered last October at Salem Horror Fest 2020. Written and directed by Nora Unkel, A Nightmare Wakes stars Alix Wilton Regan, Giullian Yao Gioiello, Philippe Bowgen, Lee Garrett, Claire Glassford and Shannon Spangle. The film premieres Feb. 4 on Shudder.
Source: YouTube
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