LibGuides: Gothic Fiction: Gothic Viewing

Gothic Film Links

Gothic Film History
This blog post is a fairly in-depth look at the Gothic in film and notable films in the genre.
MSU Guide to Gothic
This libguide from Montana State University is more focused on college students and research, but it does have great links and suggested watching/reading.
Top 100 Gothic Films
This is a community-generated list, so it's always changing, but it can be handy just to see what others out there think is Gothic (and good).
American Gothic Film History
While I mentioned there were subgenres of Gothic, I didn't really go into that on the film side. This is a great article discussing American Gothic and its subgenres.

What about something to watch?

We can all agree that books are pretty great, but it's nice to have options. And thankfully, the Gothic genre translates beautifully to film/TV!

Many of the books covered in the previous tab (Gothic Reads) have been made into films at least once, if not also TV series or mini-series as well. And of course, some like Dracula and Frankenstein have been adapted possibly hundreds of time, each adaptation focusing on a different aspect of those books. I won’t list those, because we’d be here forever and you’ve probably seen at least one version of them. Though if you're going to watch one Dracula film, make it the wonderfully over the top 1998 version from John Carpenter. But in other words, I want to suggest some possibly lesser known films and some personal favorites you might've missed amid all the continued adaptations of The Haunting of Hill House.

Crimson Peak
This film hands down is the most Gothic film that ever Gothic'd. Del Toro has a love for the genre, and it really shows. Every detail of the story, set design, and costumes point to the long history of Gothic fiction. Sadly it was advertised as a horror, which upset movie goers. It is not. And don't forget: the ghost is a metaphor.
The Woman in Black
A young lawyer is sent on what seems like a standard estate case for a woman with no relatives and few belongings. He quickly realizes something is very wrong in the house, and it doesn't let go easily once you're inside. The book for this is great as well, and a quick read.
The Orphanage/El Orfanato
yes, another del Toro film, but I did say he has a love for the genre. A woman buys the now-closed orphanage she was raised in, hoping to clean it up and open it as a home for disabled children. Her son makes an invisible friend, and things spiral out of control.
The Haunting of Hill House
I know I said I wasn’t including stuff based on some of the more popular books, but there have been so many terrible adaptation of Hill House. The Netflix adaptation stands out as really capturing the feel of the book while giving their own spin on it that still works. Don’t forget to look in the backgrounds of scenes for ghosts!
The Others
While this film falls more onto the side of just a ghost story, you could make an argument for it belonging to the Gothic. A woman raising her two children in a huge old home, forced to stay in the dark, beset by strangers who seem to be trying to take over the house.
The Innocents
If you’ve seen The Haunting of Bly Manor, then you know that Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw adapts quite well to film. This version does not disappoint, really capturing the tense mood and ambiguity of the plot.