A NIGHTMARE WAKES is Coming Exclusively to AMC Networks’ Shudder Feb. 4

SHUDDER

PRESENTS A NEW SHUDDER ORIGINAL

STUNNING MARY SHELLY GOTHIC DRAMA, A NIGHTMARE WAKES, COMES TO SHUDDER FEBRUARY 4TH

An unsettlingly intimate portrayal of a brilliant artist at her most troubled, Shudder’s A Nightmare Wakes, written and directed by Nora Unkel, traces the tortured birth of a timeless masterwork and the rightful ascension of its creator to stand alongside her creation. The film debuts on February 4th – days after the 170th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s death on February 1st, 1851.

While composing her famous novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (Alix Wilton Regan, The Wife) descends into an opium-fueled fever dream while carrying on a torrid love affair with Percy Shelley (Giullian Yao Gioiello, Scream: The TV Series, Marvel’s Iron Fist). As she writes, the characters of her novel come to life and begin to plague the relationships with those closest to her as the shadow of her monster threatens to overcome her.

Shot with a majority female production crew, the sweeping psychological thriller is steeped in accurate period details but told with a modern perspective. While the filmmakers took great pains to be as historically accurate as possible in the movie’s lighting and design, they chose to cast racially diverse actors.

A Nightmare Wakes will debut exclusively on Shudder in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as via the Shudder offering within the AMC+ bundle where available.

Produced by Robert Menzies, Devin Shepherd, Gabriel Rosenstein, Frédéric Fiore, and Eric Tavitian. John Connor, DJ Dodd, Dave Conlon, Bruce Fleming, Paul Moyer and Dan Wong executive produced. A Logical Pictures and Wild Obscura production, in association with Zed.film, The Spitting Image, and Eggplant Picture and Sound.

A Nightmare Wakes was a selection of the 2017 IFP Week and 2019 IFP Narrative Lab, as well as the 2017 Frontières Co-Production Market at Fantasia and 2019 Frontières Platform at Cannes. The film premiered at Salem Horror Fest’s virtual edition this past October.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

She creates a masterpiece. She gives birth to a monster. She awakens a nightmare.

A Nightmare Wakes is based off the life of Mary Shelley as she writes her novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. With her Creature and Creator, Mary created science fiction as an entire genre and transfixed 1800s Europe in ways they never thought possible. But what history seems to forget is that Frankensteinis about a miscarriage. It’s a metaphor for motherhood. It’s a cry for the death of her child.

Mary’s tumultuous struggle of love, loss, abandonment by society and family, and even a struggle with her own sanity, has yettobe captured fully on screen. In studying her history and hearing its echoes in modern day life, I realize that Mary’s life and my own, as a modern woman, arenot dissimilar. She lived a colorful life of free love, drugs, and freedom alongside some of the most celebrated artists of her day. Why not, then, show her story throughmodern sensibilities and imagery? Further, why not tell her story as she envisioned Frankenstein-through the horror of losing a child. With dark, thrilling, and sexual themes, Mary’s story escapes from history and becomes our own.

In the end, I hope to leave audiences enraptured by Mary’s chilling, intimate, and dark narrative —a narrative to enter their darkest nightmares.

ABOUT SHUDDER:

AMC Networks’ Shudder is a premium streaming video service, super-serving members with the best selection in genre entertainment, covering horror, thrillers and the supernatural. Shudder’s expanding library of film, TV series, and originals is available on most streaming devices in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. For a 7-day, risk-free trial, visit www.shudder.com.

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