Review: Mary Shelley Biopic, ‘A Nightmare Wakes,’ stumbles into a deep snooze

In the summer of 1816, Mary Shelley “stepped out of childhood into life” with the creation of her most acclaimed work, “Frankenstein” — as biographer Emily W. Sunstein chronicles in 1989’s definitive biography “Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality.” With Lake Geneva liken unto a million diamonds, Shelley spent the summer boating, writing, and enjoying the company of Percy, Claire Clairmont, and Lord Byron, whose physician John Polidori would be an unexpected, yet suitable, addition to their gathering. Provoked by Bryon’s prompt for each to write their own ghost story, Mary Shelley racked her brain for a fitting enough tale, often coming up short.

One dark night, however, she fell into a “waking dream” — and a frightening, most disturbing yarn unfurled before her. “Frankenstein” was thus born out of her subconscious mind. Filmmaker Nora Unkel roots her debut feature, A Nightmare Wakes, within this historical context, fraying the edges and fudging certain details, to sculpt a provocative assessment around the creation of Mary Shelley’s magnum opus. Emotional punches, largely at the hands of Alix Wilton Regan as Mary Shelley, keep the viewer jolted awake, even if the story itself falls into a drowsy stupor.

The summer sun rides high in the sky, waxing bright and hot, and the days seem to linger on forever. Mary and Percy’s relationship matches such intensity with one of their own: a deeply, maddening sort of love. It quickly becomes evident, though, Percy’s jealousy glows even hotter and brighter, frequently at the expense of Mary’s writing and ability to remained tethered to the world at all. Following a miscarriage, Mary finds herself mentally decaying, slipping in and out of hallucinations, and as Percy continues pulling away, one drunken night leads him to rape her — another terrible wound on an already tortured woman. Mary’s very existence skids from view, and only her quill pen is life preserver enough to keep her afloat.

A Nightmare Wakes invites the viewer right inside Mary Shelley’s alluringly disturbed creativity, a genius mind finding comfort within hallowed halls of one of the genre’s most wicked narratives — with “Frankenstein” roaring to ferocious life through Mary’s distressing delusions. Nora Unkel undoubtedly possesses a striking storytelling style, from chilling visual metaphors about loss to uncomfortably long static shots. While the film itself is not entirely effective, the imagery Unkel paints will be enough to give you nightmares.

A Nightmare Wakes hits Shudder this Thursday (February 4).

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