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House of Dark Shadows [VHS]

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To those of you spending your days bewitched by the misadventures of Tabitha and Timmy on "Passions," there are those of us who are here to remind you of "Dark Shadows," the cult soap opera hit that ran from 1966-71. The Gothic soap was floundering in the ratings when the character of vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) was introduced. Producer/Director Dan Curtis provided this 1970 introduction to the wonderful world of "Dark Shadows," so late comers could get up to speed. Barnabas is freed from his crypt after nearly 200 years by a thief stealing treasure and returns to the family home Collinwood pretending to be a distant English cousin who just happens to be named for the infamous "ancestor." Barnabas discovers that the family governess, Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) is the spitting image of his former love Josette, who killed herself when she learned he had become a vampire. Meanwhile, the family physician Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) learns of Barnabas' true identity and develops a treatment that will reverse the curse. Able to walk in daylight again, Barnabas plans on marrying Maggie. Unfortunately, Dr. Hoffman has fallen in love with Barnabas and sabotges the treatments, which results in quite a bloodbath.

"House of Dark Shadows" certainly stands on its own if you have never seen the soap opera, although the effort to give everyone in the cast some screen time does get in the way from time to time. For those who remember the show, it is nice to see Louis Edmonds, Nancy Barrett, Joan Benett and the others again. The script by Sam Hall and Gordon Russell is actually quite innovative, coming up with some new twists for the love triangle while working in notions of reincarnation and scientific approaches to curing vampirism. At the heart of the film is Frid's portrayal of Barnabas Collins, which offers considerably more depth to the character than we were getting at the time from Christopher Lee's Dracula in all those Hammer films.

Largely because it was based on a cult daytime seriel, House of Dark Shadows has always been underrated and often unfairly dismissed as just one last attempt to exploit the show's then-waning popularity. As well, House of Dark Shadows came out at a time when the vampire film was having a minor revival and as such, it is often simply lumped together with the likes of Count Yorga or Blacula and forgotten. This is unfortunate because, when watched with an unbiased, open mind, House of Dark Shadows is revealed to be one of the best horror films of the '70s, an original work that -- if indeed it was created mostly to cash in on a tv show in decline -- manages to both improve on the show and to stand along as its own seperate, highly satisfying terms.

It is true that the film's plot is basically a retelling of the first few years of the tv show. Petty criminal Willie Loomis accidentally releases 200 year-old vampire Barnabas Collins who proceeds to reacquaint himself with the modern day Collins family, all the while pining for his lost love Josette and feeding on random victims during the night. A local doctor, Julia Hoffman, discovers that Barnabas is a vampire, and persuades him to let her try to cure him. When he discovers what he believes to be Josette's modern day incarnation in the form of Maggie Evans, a jealous Hoffman spikes his cure which leads to a lot of a mayhem, a lot of blood, and most of the cast (all playing versions of their beloved TV characters) dead.

That's where the movie breaks off from the TV show and sets up its own identity. Whereas on the television show, Barnabas was a tortured hero out of Wuthering Heights, in the film he is pure evil, an indiscriminate killer who -- by the bloody end -- has managed to wipe out almost all the remaining members of his family. For fans of the TV show, it provides quite a shock to see such familiar characters struck down. However, all of the actors give sympathetic, likeable performances. Nobody can be dismissed as just doing "television" work and even if you have no background with the show, its hard not to feel pained as they all meet their end. In the end, this helps to create one of the most truly dark horror films I have ever seen.

As said before, the acting is far better than the show's reputation might lead some to guess. By most reports, the actors were getting tired of the show by the time the film was shot and as a result, they seem to get an extra jolt of energy from the chance to kill each other off. Special mention should be made of John Karlen, whose jittery Loomis is one of the film's highlights and veteran character actor Thayer David is a strong Van Helsing-type as Prof. Stokes. As Barnabas, Jonathan Frid -- whose disdain for the TV show is well documented -- is a terrifyingly evil presence. For fans of the show, one of the film's joys is a chance to see actors who never got to do much on the television show actually sink their teeth (or fangs) into the film's juicier roles and pull them off far better than anyone could have guessed. Roger Davis -- who always seemed to be getting killed on the show -- is a strong, sympathetic hero while Elizabeth Barrett makes for a sexy vampire. (Her final battle with the film's vampire hunters is one of the film's most suspenseful -- and bloody -- moments.)

The film is well directed by Dan Curtis who makes a point of not using any of the familiar locations from the TV series but instead totally reimagines the world of Dark Shadows. Working with a low budget, he still pulls off several atmospheric scenes and, most importantly, never allows the story to drag or the action to cease. The film is far more graphic than anything ever seen on the television show and the film's ending is almost disturbingly intense. This is a film that will surprise, frighten, and delight fans and non-fans of the show alike.

"Dark Shadows" (1966-71) was one-of-a-kind. It was an ABC Network soap opera that early on was done LIVE. It became more gothic when they brought in Jonathan Frid for the role of "Barnabas Collins", a resurrected vampire.
As the soap opera changed to living color, they also included werewolves, witches, ghosts and possession. It became so much more scarier. They even tried "time travel" to tell the history of Collins family.
This film was actually made while Dark Shadows was still on television. This is a theatrical motion picture based on a Dark Shadow storyline. Most of the entire cast in this film also appeared in the original Dark Shadow tv serial (1966-1971). Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Roger Davis, Nancy Barrett, John Karlen, Thayer David, Louis Edmonds, Don Briscoe, Dennis Patrick, Lisa Blake Richards, Jerry Lacy, Paul Michael, Humbert Allen Astredo, Terrayne Crawford, Michael Stroka and Joan Bennett.
George Di Cenzo has an uncredited role, whom you may remember from the 1976 tv-movie "Helter Skelter" or the ABC tv-series "Dynasty".
This movie remakes the story of when "Barnabas Collins" visits Collinwood. It then becomes super-fast storytelling that took years to tell on the ABC Network serial.
This sticks with the gothic story without all that soap opera fluff. Willie has released Barnabas Collins from his stone coffin and thus is resurrected. The man has lived for 175 years and nearly 200 years inside the coffin. He must have blood from his victims so that he may stay young. Barnabas goes to the Collinwood Estate to get reaquainted with his immediate relatives. They believe he has just arrives in town. They do not know he is the killing vampire nor the original Barnabas Collins of family history. (That's why he knows the history so well
Locations: The Collinwood set is actually The Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, New York.
The Collinsport Inn is actually The Three Bear's Inn in Westport, Connecticut.
The abandoned Monastery set is actually the Lockwood-Mathews mansion in Norwalk, Connecticut.
The old house set is actually the Schoales Estate (Beechwood) in Tarrytown, New York.

Followed by Night of Dark Shadows [VHS] (1971).

UPDATE: DARK SHADOWS will be released May 11, 2012. Directed by Tim Burton.

Dark Shadows DVD Collection 1

In this, the first of two Dark Shadows movies spawned from the tv series, vampire Barnabas Collins is unleashed from his almost 200 year imprisonment, and soon after all hell breaks loose as Barnabas begins a quest to claim his lost love from the 18th Century.

Its a great retelling of the original Barnabas storyline, but with a MAJOR plot twist at the end that no Dark Shadows fan should miss! The pace of the film is quick, and fans of the show will be excited to see the old characters reliving some classic moments. However, fans of the love/hate relationship story between Barnabas and Angelique may be disappointed, as Angelique is not in this movie. That goes for Quentin fans, though both Quentin and Angelique are in the second film, Night of Dark Shadows.

There were a couple of scenes dropped from the final cut, but not to fear, both House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows are being fully restored, and will be released on DVD in a few years once they finish the process of restoring the films to their original cuts. Till then, enjoy House of Dark Shadows as it is now, and go get Night of Dark Shadows too. Don't forget the new DVD box sets of the TV series either! Dark Shadows lives on!

It's 2008 and this movie has yet to be put out on DVD. It's been on my wish list for 10 years. When is this great movie going be on DVD. Enough is enough. It's time for this movie to be put out on DVD. Did I mention that this movie should be on DVD.

Several times a year and always on Halloween, I have to watch House of Dark Shadows. Released in 1970, it is based on the cult TV series Dark Shadows, which ran from 1966-1972. The Gothic series was filmed in black and white and focused on the eccentric and wealthy Collins family and their estate called Collinwood, which was located in, appropriately enough, the town of Collinsport, Maine.

The movie (filmed in glorious color!) focuses on the point in the series where the family is visited by Barnabas Collins, an enigmatic man who says he's a relative from England. The modern day Collins family is shocked at how much Barnabas looks like their 19th century ancestor of the same name. What they don't know is that Barnabas IS that relative. He is a 175-year-old vampire haunted by guilt and, since being released from his coffin by a worker at Collinwood, unable to rest.

The Collins clan lets him move into what's known as "The Old House" on the grounds of Collinwood. That's the mansion that the original Barnabas lived in more than a century prior. The place is a mess, having been allowed to fall into disrepair.

Now that he's back, Barnabas can't control himself, and he ends up biting the neck of one of his relatives. This sets off a bad chain of events that eventually becomes Barnabas' undoing.

Long story short, Barnabas meets and falls in love with a nanny living at Collinwood, Maggie Evans, who looks an awful lot like his lost 19th century love, Josette. Simultaneously, Dr. Julia Hoffman figures out that Barnabas is a vampire and thinks she has found a way to make him normal again. But in the process, she falls in love with him. A real supernatural Gothic love triangle, eh?

What I love about the movie (beyond the dark, Gothic atmosphere) is that while Barnabas is an ambiguous figure, he is somewhat sentimental too. And while he's the villain, the viewer finds themselves rooting for him anyway. After all, he doesn't want to be a vampire and he really doesn't want to hurt anyone either.

I won't tell you the ending in case you want to check out the movie. It really is well done for the time, and was directed by Dan Curtis, who not only directed the Dark Shadows TV series, but also another of my favorite movies, Burnt Offerings (1967).

I have very fond memories of watching reruns of the TV series and movie late at night when I was a kid. My brother and I would watch it together, even though he was scared to death of the supernatural. We also liked that all of this took place right in our own New England, home of so many ghosts.

One of the first times a television program was brought to the big screen. The movie takes one of the most popular story lines from the tv program and goes way beyond it. Characters, who never die in the series, do so in this film with a heck of a lot more ketchupy bloody scenes.

The movie is complete by itself and it is not necessary to have every watched the tv series to understand and enjoy this film.

Some very eerie and tense scenes. Excellent directing and great mood music. The acting also far exceeds what we saw on the tv series!

With "House of Dark Shadows," Dan Curtis has given us one of the best vampire films EVER! Terrific locations and beautiful photography take us to a Collinwood we never saw on the original series. Jonathan Frid recreates the role that made him famous, taking the character in a sinister direction which may shock some fans of the show. Grayson Hall is wonderfully "twitchy" as Dr. Julia Hoffman, who's hair-do's make you wonder if the hairdresser had taken the day off. (This was a woman more obsessed with curing a vampire than fixing her hair, obviously!) This film boasts many classic sequences, notably the staking of Carolyn, and an incredible slo-mo, fog-enshrouded climax which involves a cross-bow and gallons of some of the brightest red cinema blood EVER put on film! If you're a fan of the show, a fan of 70's horror, or just someone looking for a great horror film, you owe this to yourself!

if your a fan of the series dark shadows you will be in for a great big surprise when you first view "house of dark shadows" one thing is the movie is well made and so is the script well written. all the cast is wonderful especially kathryn leigh scott,joan bennett,jonathan frid,and the late louis edmonds. it has a lot of gothic look and even plays like a true hammer filmshould be when i was a child this film scared the he double hockey sticks outta me. even grayson hall is great i this movie dispite she dies before the film ends. nancy barret once again plays carolyn stoddard but has a rather misfortune to her,her cousin turning her into one of the undead,but miss barret is a great actress as well as the others i mantioned above,too many good actors in this film. the mansion that is in tarrytown new york is a great spooky place to film dark shadows
even the cematary there is a great place too. "house of dark shadows" plays well and whenevr the missing scenes are found and restored hey it will be a better movie but once again the movie is great no matter what. dan curtis is a perfect director for this kind of movie he has since done a lot of other spooky films like "night of dark shadows" "burnt offerings","trilogy of terror" "dracula"(with jack palance),and "tirlogy of terror 2" if you dont have house go rent or buy it ...john karlen is great too.

This vivid, well-crafted feature version of the '60's supernatural soap opera "Dark Shadows" recounts the resurrection of 200-year-old vampire Barnabas Collins(superbly portrayed by Jonathan Frid) who is released from his chained coffin by an imbecile handyman(John Karlen), then proceeds to wreak havoc on his modern descendants. The film features a number of the series regulars, including Joan Bennett as the aristocratic and very beautiful matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, and is very well directed by the original series creator Dan Curtis, who produced the picture as well. Fans of the ever popuar show will indeed find a great deal to like here as the film is shot on a much bigger budget featuring more sex and violence than those blasted censors would allow on the small screen. If you like this film, you may also want to check out its sequel, "NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS".