I.Q. Hunter
Search for other papers by I.Q. Hunter in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
The Gorgon
Adapting classical myth as Gothic romance
Abstract only
Log-in for full text

According to its director, Terence Fisher, The Gorgon was not a horror film at all, but a romantic fairy tale and 'frustrated love story'. Although the film is set in Hammer's usual stylised middle Europe, the Gorgon herself derives not from Gothic literature, like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, but from classical mythology, unfamiliar imaginative territory for the British studio. Relocating an ancient monster within the paraphernalia of Victorian Gothic, the film was Hammer's most striking experiment in free adaptation before the frankly bizarre transnational genre-fusion of The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. The Gorgon was Fisher's first Hammer film since The Phantom of the Opera and his only film about a woman. Significantly, it marked an attempt to invent a new monster at a time when, as the Dracula and Frankenstein films trailed off, Hammer sought to diversify its range for a wider international audience.

  • Collapse
  • Expand

All of MUP's digital content including Open Access books and journals is now available on manchesterhive.

 

Monstrous adaptations

Generic and thematic mutations in horror film

Editors: and

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 307 56 19
Full Text Views 88 1 0
PDF Downloads 31 0 0