Gothic

Mary Godwin, her stepsister Claire Clairmont, and her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley arrive at Villa Diodati in Geneva to stay with Lord Byron. They are joined by Byron’s physician friend Dr. John Polidori, and the atmosphere is electric with anticipation and creative possibility. The group settles in for a summer of intrigue and storytelling.

That evening, the five amuse themselves with a game of hide-and-seek as a storm rages outside. Later, in the parlor, Shelley speaks of his fascination with science while Polidori discusses sleepwalking and nightmares. They read excerpts from Phantasmagoria, a collection of horror stories, and the eerie atmosphere deepens their curiosity.

The group gathers for a séance around a human skull, hoping to provoke supernatural phenomena. During the ritual, Claire has an apparent seizure, and Mary recalls similar ‘horrors’ from earlier childhoods. The event unsettles everyone and foreshadows the creeping dread to come.

Mary witnesses a shadowy apparition outside her shared window, contributing to a growing sense that something malevolent is watching them. Shelley goes to investigate a slamming barn door and encounters a grotesque creature. The night deepens with fear and unease.

In a tense exchange, Mary confronts Byron about Claire's pregnancy and his potential role in it. Byron suggests an abortion, sparking a heated argument that leaves their relationship strained. The conflict underscores the personal stakes behind their collaborative experiment with fear and imagination.

Byron performs an intimate act on Claire, which results in a miscarriage. The group grapples with the moral and emotional fallout of these revelations. Mary is drawn into the turmoil as fear and suspicion intensify.

Shelley grows increasingly paranoid, claiming to smell a scent of decay as events intensify. Mary consoles him while Polidori reveals a bleeding neck, claiming he was bitten by a vampire. Byron and Mary briefly suspect self-inflicted wounds, heightening fear within the group.

Claire goes missing from her bedroom and is later found by Shelley, where Mary witnesses an uncanny transformation as Claire’s body seems to shift unnaturally. Mary attempts to flee, crashing through a glass door in her panic. The house itself seems to be unraveling under their fears.

Polidori attempts to hang himself in the barn but fails; he then witnesses a figure fleeing on horseback, as if the fear they’ve generated has taken on a life of its own. Byron and Shelley interpret these events as manifestations of their creation.

The group tries to recreate the séance in the basement to banish their ‘creation,’ but Mary resists the ritual. In a fevered confrontation, Mary crushes a skull and tries to stab Byron with a shard, only to be stopped by Shelley, who then kisses Byron. The tension culminates in Mary fleeing the house.

Mary awakens the next morning and joins Byron, Shelley, and Claire in the garden, trying to salvage some sense of normalcy after the night’s horrors. The group’s strained relationships and fear begin to give way to a fragile sense of calm, at least outwardly.

In the present day, tourists visit the Villa Diodati and the events are retold through narration. A voice-over notes the fates of the participants: William’s death, Shelley's drowning, Byron’s death, and Polidori’s suicide. The story frames these horrors as the seed of literary legends.

The film explains that Mary’s obsession with reviving life inspired Frankenstein, while Polidori’s fascination with vampires gave birth to The Vampyre. These creations emerge from the characters’ fears and torments during that fateful night. The narrative ties the historical events to enduring gothic literature.

The timeline closes by acknowledging the interwoven fates of the writers and the enduring power of fear to spark legendary stories. It emphasizes that their nightmares and desires catalyzed two of literature’s most influential works. The mood remains haunted by the shadows of that June night.