Review: ‘A Nightmare Wakes’ is an Imperfect Retelling of Mary Shelley’s Life

3054_STILL_Mary-Cries-by-the-Lake_A nightmare wakes review
AMC/Shudder

Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s monster, the fiend, whatever you may call him; if you know more of the creature than the bolt-necked, flat-headed principle Universal Monster that currently represents him, you know he was never the monster. At least he didn’t start out that way. Victor has always been the real fiend. His refusal to love the very being he gave life to, and his ceaseless refusal to grant the shunned creature an equal love; one which only Victor could ever provide showed us that man is incapable of true love. We are a flawed species that will relish the unconditional love of a dog, but we refuse to reciprocate it when the being requiring our affection is one that is unpleasing to our wicked eyes. Save for a few good souls among us, Victor represents mankind in all our insidiousness.

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Nora Unkel wrote A Nightmare Wakes with unrequited devotion in mind, but she conceived of a tale that marries Mary Shelley’s gothic tale of unrequited love with the story of Shelley and her own struggles to garner the undying affection of the man who treated her as less than equal, Percy Bysshe Shelley. The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, the English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights would ironically be the subject of Percy’s desires, but never his unending devotion. Nora Unkel captures Mary’s struggle with Percy in a way that will have Frankenstein aficionados doubting all their previous assumptions regarding the genesis of science fiction’s first reanimated antihero. She may have broken the code and concluded all previous theses on Mary Shelley’s true intention when writing Frankenstein.

The film opens on the quiet Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park where a woman calmly walks into the depth until she is fully submerged, presumably to drown herself. Percy’s wife, Harriet Westbrook, chooses death for herself and her unborn child over a continued life with a man who cannot fully commit to them. Giullian Yao Gioiello’s Percy continues to demonstrate he only wants the convenience of a feminine body at his whim. Mary Shelley is his mistress. Percy expresses his inability to dedicate himself in any way other than sexually by reminding Mary he’s made no promises. His actions speak differently. He halfheartedly seduces his mistress with a sense of privilege and entitlement that reduces his manhood from the perspective of empathetic eyes. He dangles the carrot of love before her with his childish requests for sexual gratification. Not much has changed in modern times. The dynamic between Mary and Percy and their peers is uncomfortably familiar as Percy plays to Mary only enough to get what he wants, their friends enabling the unfeeling poet. Through miscarriage and crib death, she becomes the fiend in the story. Percy is Victor.

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Despite Percy’s reluctant acquiescence to marry his mistress, he never fully commits to her. This mirrors the relationship between Victor and his creation. No matter how much Mary or the fiend plead for love, it is never returned. Nora Unkel’s writing shows Mary’s struggle with this through a series of nightmares and hallucinations. Mary is haunted by specters of unrequited love threatening to leave. Her broken heart bleeds into the page through tears as she hemorrhages commitment to her work. When Percy pleads for her to stop writing, he makes the excuse that it’s for her own good. She won’t be so tormented if she would abandon her project. “There’s no need for more pages,” he says, and she finally realizes he’s jealous of her story. His own feeling of inadequacy prevents him from loving her. Unkel’s concept may be the most accurate speculation on the true muse to Mary Shelley’s tortured tale.

Unfortunately, this Shudder Original falls short on commitment of its own. While the concept is excellent, the production value doesn’t match. The story deserves a platform willing to hold up a period piece that doesn’t look like it was made from a public broadcasting budget. The acting is generally fair, but costume and camera style and is inconsistent. Alix Wilton Regan, who plays Mary Shelley single-handedly, stabilizes this production, and prevents it from falling flat. Her performance is strong enough to complement Unkel’s story, but the effects often threaten to undercut the production. Frankenstein completists are going to want to see A Nightmare Wakes, but general horror audiences will likely shy away.

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Thankfully, Nora Unkel has shown us Mary has power. “I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master. Now it is the innocent who will suffer.” Mary and the fiend are one. In a twisted way, I am grateful for the inspiration Mary took from her relationship to Percy but granting him appreciation feels disloyal to decency. We all suffer trauma in the quest for acceptance and true companionship. It’s comforting to know Mary Shelley enjoyed the success of her novel while she was still alive. The women in Percy Shelley’s life owe nothing to his legacy, yet his aromanticism is given credit for works far greater than his own. “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.” ~From Harriet Westbrook’s suicide letter to Percy and Percy’s poem, “To a Skylark.”


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