For many of us the modern horror story got its start during the rainy summer of 1816, in a villa in Geneva, Switzerland. A group of talented geniuses found themselves trapped indoors due to the terrible weather, one was the decadent lord Byron, his doctor and sometimes lover John Polidori, Percy Shelley, his 19-year bride Mary and her sister Claire. To pass the time the young people read ghost stories and told each other tales of terror which was all the rage.
After many hours these young literary geniuses decided to make up and write their own horror story. What happened would set the stage for the modern horror novel Polidori would come up with a tale of a vampire which would set the stage for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But it would be 19-year-old Mary who would steal everyone’s thunder by coming up with Frankenstein. Her tale had a young scientist by the name of Victor Frankenstein who stitches together a monster from the pieces of dead bodies, with this he creates a being. Who is rejected again and again due to his horrifying appearance. The creature vows revenge on his creator. According to legend Mary had nightmare where she saw the young scientist leaning over a monster of great stature attempting to bring it to life. And the tell of Mary Shelley and her famous monster has been filmed many times notably Ken Russell’s film gothic and at the beginning of the Bride of Frankenstein as well. And so, it goes.