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The house party that invented modern horror: How Frankenstein was born.

Watch Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night on BBC Select

A dark and stormy night in Lake Geneva. In a game of competitive ghost storytelling incited by her friend Lord Byron, Mary Shelley animated the corpse of a literary icon – Frankenstein’s monster.

Pairing drama and real-life letters alongside takes from Shelley’s current literary counterparts Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, this documentary tells the story of how modern horror was electrified into life.

Watch Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night and more acclaimed documentaries on BBC Select today. Restrictions apply*.

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