By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The psychological thriller takes a fresh look at the creation of FRANKENSTEIN.
Shudder has announced that it will premiere A NIGHTMARE WAKES exclusively on its platforms in the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, as well as via the Shudder offering within the AMC+ bundle where available, on February 4, days after the 170th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s death on February 1, 1851. Written and directed by Nora Unkel, the film stars Alix Wilton Regan, Giullian Yao Gioiello, Philippe Bowgen, Lee Garrett, Claire Glassford and Shannon Spangler. The synopsis: “While composing her famous novel FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley descends into an opium-fueled fever dream while carrying on a torrid love affair with Percy Shelley. As she writes, the characters of her novel come to life and begin to plague her relationship with Percy. Before long, she must choose between true love and her literary masterpiece.” (See our review of A NIGHTMARE WAKES here.)
“With her Creature and Creator,” Unkel says, “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.”
“Mary Shelley helped create two of the most popular genres in cinema, horror and science fiction,” adds Shudder General Manager Craig Engler. “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.”
