Gothic romance is not about healthy relationships, it’s about all those haunting red flags. Think obsession, doomed desire, and loving someone so much you’ll never let them go, not even till death do us part baby.

Spanning brooding literary misery (Wuthering Heights), immortal bisexual longing (The Hunger), blood-soaked feminist rebellion (The Blood Spattered Bride), and lavish, ghost-filled melodrama (Crimson Peak), these films celebrate love at its most excessive and obsessive, and who doesn’t love a little bit of drama?

Expect intense staring, terrible decisions, repressed feelings erupting into violence, romance that absolutely should have gone to therapy and lovers who simply refuse to die. Perfect for first dates, bad crushes, and anyone who likes their love stories dark, messy, and very extra.

It’s dramatic, it’s romantic and it proves that if cinema insists on giving us monsters, they should at least be hot. (looking at you Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein.)