For the film's U.S. release, Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" wrote that the film "isn't always coherent, but it's as ghoulishly funny and frenzied as a carnival ride through "The Marquis de Sade's Tunnel of Love," adding: "Don't go to "Gothic" expecting to be elevated. This is no reverie. It's a series of gaudy shock effects, an anthology of horror-film mannerisms that looks like a 60's LSD trip. If "Gothic" says anything about Byron, Shelley and their friends, it's just that anyone who trusted them with a summer rental had to be out of his mind." Desson Howe from "Washington Post" wrote, "Beyond the carnalia... "Gothic" happens to be strikingly shot, the special effects inspired, albeit gruesome. Although he slops his signature blood 'n' cleavage across the screen, Russell makes it slick, with dynamic cutting, vivid lighting and framing. Who knows, you might spot a little humor in this hyperbolic lunacy. On the other hand, after a cinematic orgy like this, you might long for 15 minutes with an evangelist." Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2/4 stars, writing, "Too weird for some, too highbrow for many horror fans, but full of Russel's hallucinatory visuals."