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Haunted Summer

Catalog Number
M012243
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Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
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VHS | SP | Slipcase
106 mins (NTSC)
N/A | N/A | N/A
N/A | N/A
Haunted Summer (1989)

Additional Information

Additional Information
Four lovers explore the heights of passion. And the depths of evil.

Adapted by Lewis John Carlino from the speculative novel by Anne Edwards, Haunted Summer recounts one of the most tempestuous "menage a quatres" of the 19th century. During an Italian holiday in 1816, novelist Mary Godwin (Alice Krige) meets the man she is destined to marry, bisexual poet Percy Byshe Shelley (Eric Stoltz). In so doing, Mary finds herself in emotional conflict with Shelley's possessive mentor Dr. Polidori (Alex Winter) and his fellow poet and erstwhile lover, the tortured Lord Byron (Philip Anglim). The erotic adventures that follow make the Gothic goings-on in Mary Shelley's subsequent novel Frankenstein seem like a day at the beach, though it is suggested that Frankenstein might never have happened had it not been for Mary's fateful "Summer of '16." Also figuring into the proceedings is one Claire Claremont, played by Laura Dern, who arguably delivers the film's best performance.

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 Claire Clairmont 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.

Release Date: July 5, 1989


Distrib: Cannon Releasing

Boxoffice: $9,911 2014: $20,100

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