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Crimson Peak hits cinemas this weekend and while Guillermo del Toro has asserted himself as a maniacal master of the horror, superhero, and kaiju genres, this is his first foray into the strange world of Gothic Romance. It’s a weird and campy genre that was once given the same respect as the Twilight Saga — because many of its fans were hysteric teenaged girls.
Over the years, Gothic Romances have inspired the likes of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley to invent horror, Jane Austen to write satire, and the Bronte sisters to perfect the genre as a literary art form. Filmmakers, too, can’t resist the throbbing sensuality and exaggerated drama of the genre. Before you check out Crimson Peak, be sure to watch one of these five great Gothic titles on streaming.
'Wuthering Heights' (1992)
You might think of Kate Bush or a sweeping romance on the misty moors when you think of Wuthering Heights, but the novel starts as a strange ghost story. Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff and Cathy are fused together by a supernatural connection. When the vain Cathy chooses the wealthy Edward Linton over her urchin sweetheart, she sets off decades of drama that ruins everyone she knows and haunts the next generation. While there have been many adaptations of this literary masterpiece over the years, the 1992 version with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche doesn’t shy away from the tale’s eerier elements. [Watch Wuthering Heights on Netflix]
'Jane Eyre' (2011)
Emily wasn’t the only Bronte to conquer the Gothic genre. Older sister Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre was a groundbreaking work of literature and has given us one of the most enduring plot set ups: a good-hearted maiden moves into an old house, falls for its bewitching master, and is soon threatened by the home’s deadly secrets. Many Jane Eyre adaptations focus on its heroine’s Dickensian rise, but Cary Joji Fukunaga’s 2011 version is thrumming with the sexual tension and psychological storms that make the story so unique. Also: Crimson Peak‘s Mia Wasikowska stars as Jane. [Watch Jane Eyre on Netflix]
'Bram Stoker's Dracula' (1992)
Vampires have always split their time between our fantasies and our nightmares which makes them the perfect creatures to star in a Gothic Romance. Bram Stoker wasn’t the first writer to seek inspiration in Romanian folk tales about blood-sucking monsters called vampires, but he was the first to create an enduring mythology around the creatures. Francis Ford Coppola tried to resurrect Stoker’s original vision for his iconic character in 1992. His overly ambitious film dips into the romance and the horror of the original Dracula (and the Gothic Romance genre). [Where to Stream Bram Stoker’s Dracula]
'The Phantom of the Opera' (2004)
The Phantom of the Opera is one of the most enduring pulp mysteries because of its drama, its romance, and its compelling titular character. In the last few decades, the tale’s horror angle has been superseded by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sumptuous musical take on it. In 2004, Joel Schumacher brought the popular stage show to the big screen with middling results. Schumacher’s adaptation constantly tilts into camp, which means that for all its cinematic faults, it’s an astonishingly good representative of early Gothic Romance. [Where to Stream The Phantom of The Opera]
'Sleepy Hollow' (1999)
Tim Burton, whose lush aesthetic has always owed much to the history of Gothic storytelling, turned Washington Irving’s spooky story of the Headless Horseman on its head in this 1999 film. Burton cast Johnny Depp as a Byronic Ichabod Crane and Christina Ricci as a version of Katrina Van Tassel whose look owed more to Pre-Raphaelite art than colonial American fashion. In short, Burton put more “Gothic” and more “Romance” into tale already steeped in it. [Watch Sleepy Hollow on Netflix]
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