Haunted Summer
| Haunted Summer | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ivan Passer |
| Produced by | Martin Poll |
| Written by | Lewis John Carlino |
| Based on |
Haunted Summer by Anne Edwards |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Christopher Young |
| Cinematography | Giuseppe Rotunno |
| Edited by |
Cesare D'Amico Rick Fields |
| Distributed by | Cannon Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Haunted Summer is a 1988 drama film directed by Ivan Passer.
It stars Philip Anglim as Lord Byron, Eric Stoltz as Percy Shelley, Alice Krige as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Alex Winter as Dr. John William Polidori and Laura Dern as Claire Clairmont.
Plot summary
Like the 1986 film Gothic, Haunted Summer is set in 1816. Authors Lord Byron, Mary Shelley (née Godwin) and Percy Shelley get together for some philosophical discussions, but the situation soon deteriorates into mind games, drugs, and sex. It is a fictionalization of the summer that Lord Byron and the Shelleys, together with Lord Byron's ex-lover and his doctor, John Polidori, spent in the isolated Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva. It is there they devise a contest to adduce the best horror story to kill the dullness of summer. It is also there that one of the world's most famous books was given life—Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.