Silent Monsters

The topic of my PhD thesis at the University of Edinburgh were silent film adaptations of 19th – early 20th century Gothic novels and the aesthetic and psychological interpretation of the “monster” figure.

My research included films made between 1897 and 1920 and included “monstrous” characters such as Jekyll/Hyde from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Erik from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, Dracula from Dracula by Bram Stoker, Gwynplaine from The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo, Frankenstein’s Creature from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Faust from Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Orlac from The Hands of Orlac by Maurice Renard.

I had the privilege to meet a vast array of mad scientists, hybrid creatures, deranged geniuses, artists, deformed heroes and lost souls, who changed my life forever. I’ve hoarded them all in my enormous secret database, which I hope to one day make public.

This research has been and continues to be a huge inspiration to me in everything I do. It seeps into my art, film making and writing and even into my work in Egypt.

My Articles on Film, Literature, Art, History and the Monsters who Haunt Them:

(Click on covers to view)

“The Mummy Unwrapped.” *Rue Morgue Magazine*, no. 162, Dec. 2015.

“Classic Cut: John S. Robertson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” *Rue Morgue Magazine*, no. 146, July 2014

“Review: Eve Golden (2013) John Gilbert: The Last of the Silent Film Stars. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.” Film-Philosophy Journal, vol. 19, 2015.