Film

Dorian Gray

Name: Dorian Gray
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Thriller
Released: 2009
Cast: Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, Rebecca Hall, Emilia Fox, Ben Chaplin

Oliver Parker's 2009 adaptation transplants Wilde's novel into gothic Victorian excess, where vanity becomes horror. Ben Barnes plays Dorian as a beautiful man corroded from within, while Colin Firth's Lord Henry whispers poison with impeccable diction. It's a sumptuous, nasty film about the price of immortality—watchable for its dark glamour and the sight of corruption made literal.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you relish slow-burning Gothic period drama where moral corruption unfolds through glittering drawing rooms and Wilde-style wit, and you don't need the horror to be loud.

Skip it if you want a tight, fast thriller, since this is a languid, talky film that lingers on its decadence and takes its time getting anywhere.

What it asks of you: Just under two hours at a measured, brooding pace, with long stretches of quiet, candlelit scenes you are expected to settle into rather than be rushed through.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Picture of Dorian Gray1945

The classic Hollywood adaptation, faithful to Wilde's structure and far more restrained than the 2009 version. Hurd Hatfield's Dorian is eerily beautiful and genuinely tragic, anchored by the novel's actual moral weight.

But Black and white and made for 1945 sensibilities means some of the decadence gets muted. It moves slowly by modern standards.

A Clockwork Orange1971

Kubrick's assault on the senses about a charismatic killer who corrupts everyone around him. Like Dorian, it's about beauty paired with monstrosity, and it trusts the audience to be unsettled rather than comforted.

But The violence is graphic and the philosophy can feel like intellectual posturing. It's deliberately repellent, which is sometimes the point and sometimes too much.

The Hunger1983

Tony Scott's surreal fever dream about seduction, aging, and the grotesque price of immortality. David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve embody the decadent couple pulling innocents into their orbit. Visually intoxicating.

But The plot is thin and the film is more interested in mood than narrative coherence. If you need a clear story, you'll be frustrated.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Dorian Gray

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Separation2011

Both are about the corruption of the soul through rationalization and the slow realization that you've become the thing you despised. No magic needed—just time and choices.

Asghar Farhadi's Iranian masterpiece about a marriage collapsing and the moral compromises everyone makes to survive. Nothing like Dorian in setting or plot, but it shares the same architecture: beautiful, intelligent people making ugly choices because they can justify them.

But It's a domestic drama with no supernatural elements. If you watch Dorian for the gothic atmosphere and the portrait's horror, you'll find this austere and slow.

Crimson Peak2015

Guillermo del Toro's gothic melodrama about beauty concealing rot. Like Dorian, it wraps horror in gorgeous production design and explores how charm can be a weapon. Tom Hiddleston is magnetic and sinister.

But Del Toro prioritizes atmosphere over scares. If you want psychological terror rather than ghosts and aesthetics, it won't deliver.

Witchfinder General1968

Vincent Price as a man corrupted by his own power, beautiful and terrible. This is Dorian through a different lens—a study of how absolute authority warps a soul into something monstrous.

But It's blunt and violent in ways 1968 cinema rarely was. The sadism on screen is genuine, and the film doesn't wink at the audience.

Dead Ringers1988

Cronenberg's masterpiece about twins who swap identities and spiral into codependent decay. Like Dorian, it's about the corruption of beauty and the grotesque hiding beneath perfect surfaces.

But It's disturbing and gynecological in its imagery. Cronenberg's unblinking style isn't for viewers who want comfort or distance from what they're seeing.

Eyes Wide Shut1999

Kubrick's final film about an ordinary man seduced into an ornate world of ritual and hidden ugliness. It shares Dorian's fascination with beautiful surfaces concealing moral bankruptcy and dangerous secrets.

But The pacing is glacial and the plot seems to circle without going anywhere. Some find it hypnotic; others find it tedious.

Suspiria2018

Luca Guadagnino remakes Argento's cult film as a nightmare about a young dancer pulled into a world of beauty, corruption, and violence. The aesthetic is intoxicating and the darkness runs deep.

But It's long, slow, and the plot is deliberately cryptic. The atmosphere is everything; if you need clarity or conventional narrative satisfaction, don't watch this.

The Neon Demon2016

Nicolas Winding Refn's gorgeous horror about a model destroyed by the beauty industry. It visualizes the same idea as Dorian—that beauty is a currency that corrupts everyone who touches it, especially the beautiful themselves.

But The film is deliberately shallow and the dialogue is minimal. If you need depth or character interiority, the style-over-substance approach will annoy you.