House of Dark Shadows

Plot synopsis:
Willie Loomis, the Collins family handyman, is searching for old treasure in the family mausoleum when he accidentally frees Barnabas Collins, a 175-year-old vampire who enslaves him. Upon his release, he attacks Daphne Budd, secretary to Collinwood’s matriarch, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. She is discovered by Jeff Clark, who takes her back to the house where Dr. Julia Hoffman administers medical attention to her.
Barnabas introduces himself to the family under the guise of a "cousin from England". Elizabeth and the others are intrigued by Barnabas and take an instant liking to him. Barnabas insists on moving into the Old House and hosting a ball in honour of the family; however, on the night of the ball, Elizabeth's daughter Carolyn Stoddard is bitten by Barnabas while she is getting ready.
Later on at the ball, he is introduced to young David Collins's governess and Jeff's girlfriend Maggie Evans and is instantly smitten with her, as she bears a striking resemblance to his long-lost fiancée, Josette du Pres. Maggie is thinking about leaving Collinwood, but Barnabas persuades her to stay. Back at the Old House, he tells Willie about Josette and how she took her own life on the night they were to be married. Carolyn overhears and threatens to expose him out of jealousy. Enraged, Barnabas delivers a deadly bite to Carolyn, much to Willie's horror. A shaken Willie takes Carolyn back home; she slowly walks to the doorway, but she is soon discovered slumped in the doorway—dead—by the maid, Mrs. Johnson.
Funeral services are held for Carolyn, and she is buried in the Collins family mausoleum. Dr. Hoffman analyzes samples of Carolyn's blood and recognizes trace elements of the same unknown virus that was present in Daphne Budd's blood sample. Professor T. Eliot Stokes, a friend of the family, confers with Julia and tells her that the recent attacks in Collinsport may have been caused by a vampire.
Carolyn rises as a vampire and almost attacks David. Stokes and Julia try to explain, but Elizabeth and Roger refuse to listen. Carolyn's former fiancé Todd encounters her and she bites him. After he is taken back to Collinwood, the family realize that Stokes and Julia were correct about the vampires. Todd again sneaks out in search of Carolyn, but she is cornered and staked, instantly killing her.
Julia eventually discovers that Barnabas is the vampire responsible. She visits him at the Old House and convinces him that she can use her methods to make him human and he reluctantly agrees. Julia gives him injections which allow him to walk in the daylight. Overtime, Barnabas and Maggie begin to spend time together while Jeff is away in Boston. Stokes confronts Julia about helping Barnabas—and realizes she is love with him—and reminds her that he is in love with Maggie. Overcome with jealousy, Julia gives Barnabas an injection which causes him to age rapidly. Out of rage, he strangles her to death. A terrified Maggie witnesses this and tries to flee, but is caught and bitten by Barnabas before she can escape and he vows to come back for her. Jeff soon returns, and he is informed of the family history by Stokes and Roger and that Barnabas intends to make Maggie his bride. That night, Barnabas bites Maggie again, rejuvenating him, and then abducts her.
Jeff and the others pursue them; however, Roger and Stokes are killed. Jeff eventually finds Maggie at on old church in trance and in Josette's wedding gown. Willie warns him against trying to stop Barnabas and knocks him out. Willie leads Maggie out of the room to where Barnabas is waiting for her. He lays her down on an altar and is about to bite her when Jeff wakes up and shoots at him, but Willie, running to stop Barnabas, moves in the way, and is hit by Jeff's crossbow bolt. Barnabas lures Jeff out his hiding place and forces him to be a witness by placing him in a trance; however, as Barnabas attempts to bite Maggie, he screams in pain as he's struck in his back. Turning around, he's shocked then enraged to discover that it was Willie—in his final act of redemption—who stabbed him with the crossbow bolt. Barnabas strangles the mortally wounded Willie, but Loomis's attack breaks Jeff out of Barnabas's trance long enough for Jeff to finish driving the bolt through the vampire's back, ultimately bursting through his bloody chest. Maggie, now revived, is rescued by Jeff, both briefly observing the bodies of the presumably dead vampire and Willie Loomis before departing the ruined chapel.
In a post-credits scene, Barnabas's body transforms into a bat and then vanishes.

Tags: paranormal, romantic, gothic, murder

Review:
Director Dan Curtis (on a very low budget) took what on television was an extremely lengthy introduction and history of the Barnabas Collins character and crammed all he could of it into a 96 minute film.
Both the matriarch of the family, Elizabeth Stoddard (Joan Bennett) and her brother Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds) welcome him and immediately install him in the "old house" which, in fact, is Barnabas' original home.
Though the plot has a few twists not seen in the series, the story is still pretty familiar.Sure enough, Barnabas soon has his way with Elizabeth's daughter Carolyn (Nancy Barrett)and she becomes one of his first victims.
The two chief supporting females upon whom the plot really turns are Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) the beautiful governess who bears a striking resemblance to Josette Du Pres, Barnabas' first love, and Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) an old family friend writing a history of the Collins family.
Based on the highly successful supernatural soap opera DARK SHADOWS, this feature film version of the ever popular series recounts the resurrection of Barnabas Collins(Jonathan Frid), a 175-year-old vampire who passes himself off as a modern-day descendant of the Collins clan.
While staying at the Gothic Collinwood estate, Barnabas becomes entranced by a beautiful governess(Kathryn Leigh Scott) who bears a striking resemblance to his long-lost love, Josette, and determines to make the young woman his new bride.
HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS (1970) is the movie-house version of the then popular Gothic Soap Opera.
Willie Loomis (John Karlen), while robbing a New England crypt, accidently awakens 200 year old vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid's moment of immortality!)  Barnabas comes upon his modern descendants as a "long lost relative from England" leaving out the one little detail about being 200 years old.
It is worth noting that several of the performers were pulling double duty at the time, since the daily program was churning out new episodes while HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS was being filmed.
This feature film adaptation of the popular Gothic soap opera recounts the resurrection of vampire Barnabas Collins(convincingly played by Jonathan Frid) who passes himself as a visiting cousin from England.
But producer/director Dan Curtis(the creator of the original series), knows the drastic difference between a daytime TV soap opera and a feature film, and uses this knowledge to create a striking, entertaining picture.
To begin with, my expectations for this vintage vampire flick – one of two cinema spin-offs (but whose DVD release has been pending for several years now!) of the seemingly never-ending TV series (putting paid to the prospect of acquiring it on DVD and of which I knew next to nothing beforehand except for the name of the lead vampire!) – were considerable given the cult status of the franchise (not forgetting my own impression of the other Dan Curtis work I'd watched thus far); incidentally, I don't think the more recent "Dark Shadows" incarnations have had much of an impact.
Even so, I couldn't help feeling let down to some extent by the result – since, while it's certainly well done in most respects and highly watchable (in spite of the over-familiar subject matter) – there's nothing really outstanding about it either!Vampirism is clearly one of the horror themes which has, pardon the pun, been done to death most over the years; yet, when handled with reasonable flair (though negated somewhat here by the full-frame presentation of the Laserdisc-sourced edition I watched – amusingly reverting to a blue-screen for a split-second at one point, denoting the end of Side A!), it's able to retain all the fascination and chill-factor inherent within the subgenre.
Incidentally, several vampire films made during this time utilized – not always successfully – a modern-day setting; this, however, was one of the more effective because the vast estate around which much of the events revolve – plus the old-style look of the vampire himself (Jonathan Frid bearing a striking resemblance to Boris Karloff, with a bit of Harry Dean Stanton thrown in for good measure!) – supplies the requisite Gothic touch in spades.
As I said, it follows much the typical pattern of cinematic vampires: the undead Barnabas Collins obviously hides his true identity initially; he practically enslaves the man (John Karlen from DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS [1971]) who re-awakens him (incidentally, it appears that the vampire was left chained inside his coffin for 200 years i.e. he wasn't killed in the traditional way beforehand!) without being turned into a vampire himself – similarly, there's the usual illogicality in that some people become afflicted with just one bite while the heroine, conveniently, requires numerous 'sessions'!; Collins ensnares a couple of women throughout, one of whom is never seen again, but then incurs the jealousy of the other – who's strong-willed and, therefore, more compelling than the lovely but rather bland heroine – through his obsession with the latter, a girl who's ostensibly the reincarnation of the vampire's dead love (she's not actually a descendant of hers, but just happens to be working for the family!), etc.A couple of novel (and interesting) ideas, then, involve the middle-aged female doctor played by Grayson Hall (she was excellent in the Tennessee Williams adaptation THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA [1964]).
All in all, the film is stylish and enjoyable – with just the right balance of mood, thrills and even romance; while the sequel, which is to follow, NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS (1971) is said to be much inferior (not surprising given its compromised current form), I'm still looking forward to an open-minded preliminary appraisal of it.
Accompanying the feature is a frenziedly-edited trailer which, delightfully typical of its time, also contains such campy narration as "House Of Dark Shadows – where death is a way of life" and ending with "Come see how the vampires do it"!!
Movie version of the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows with better production values.
Essentially it retells the story of vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), the show's most popular character, and his quests for a cure and to be with his reincarnated love.
I usually see director Dan Curtis as economical, but in a plain sense (which sees him in a lot of made for TV features) and there's some of that evident in the traditional, but always sophisticated and eerie low-budget (it shows) tragic horror 'House of Dark Shadows'.
Jonathan Frid stars as centuries old vampire Barnabas Collins, who, having been freed from his crypt, proceeds to work his way through his ancestors in order to get to Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), who he believes to be the reincarnation of his long dead love Josette.
Barnabas is also offered a chance at being normal again when Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall), who is in love with the vampire, creates a cure for his affliction; however, Barnabas is betrayed by the doctor when she learns of his plans to marry Maggie, and injects him with a serum that causes him to age instead.As someone who has never seen the cult TV series on which this film is based, I found myself floundering at first, unsure as to who the characters were and what they were doing.
House of Dark Shadows (1970) ** (out of 4)Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) gets released to the open where he seeks a long lost love but a doctor (Grayson Hall) might have the cure for his disease.HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS was the first of two features from Dan Curtis that were based on the long-runniung and highly successful television series.
"House of Dark Shadows" was made chiefly for fans of the popular daytime television series from which it was derived through the participation of the show's producer, composer, writers and several prominent cast members.
Grayson Hall, as Dr. Hoffman, who falls in love with Barnabas while trying to cure his vampirism also survives the transfer intact, as does the superior character actor Thayer David as Professor Stokes.
HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS is my favorite vampire movie of all time.
Better than the old black and whites from the early days of the movies, better than the genuinely frightening Hammer movies of the 1960s, and much better than the more recent contemporary takes aimed at the high school set.As a child, and a fan of the DARK SHADOWS daytime drama, one of my happier family memories is one night the whole family packed up the car and went to the drive-in for a crazy quadruple feature.
All these years later, I still watch it (on laser disc, as there is not yet a DVD), and I'm happy to say that, for me, it is a movie that remains enjoyable, rather than being better relegated to my childhood memories.Jonathan Frid plays Barnabas Collins with great class, creating a sympathetic vampire eons before such a characterization would become commonplace.
It could be argued that there are way too many characters, for example, or that too many bodies start piling up after a certain point in the plot, but I still give the film 10 out of 10 due to the overall brilliance of the acting, atmosphere, and success in bringing Barnabas to the big screen.
HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS is an excellent adaptation of the original series' plotline of Barnabas Collins' arrival at Collinwood and his abduction of Maggie Evans to make her his Vampire Bride.
The first of these was HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, released in 1970.Using many of the characters and actors that regularly appeared in the TV serial itself, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS sees the 175 year-old vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) being unwisely released from his resting place by a callow undertaker (John Karlen), and he goes to the Collinwood estate to cause all manner of vampiric mayhem on the Collins family.
But even though the budget for HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS wasn't exactly big either, at just $750,000, Curtis, freed from TV censorship restrictions, was able to show a lot more in the way of sex and violence, especially in Frid's bloodthirsty activities.
But HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, despite its low-budget flaws, nevertheless distinguishes itself as a thoroughly unique horror film, especially of the vampire genre, of the early 1970s, much as the series that spawned it remains, again with all its flaws in mind, one of the most unique TV shows ever put on the air..
Its only real problems are some characters not given enough screen time or development, especially Elizabeth and Maggie, and Joan Bennett being very underused as Elizabeth that she doesn't shine anywhere near as much as in the show.'House of Dark Shadows' however is visually an improvement over the show's production values, with the exception of a couple of goofs and bloopers which didn't hurt the film at all.
Dan Curtis directs beautifully and intelligently, never once undermining the tension, suspense or horror and doesn't make the mistakes of not having enough of either or over-crowding the film with them.Most of the characters are interesting, particularly Barnabas and Julia, and the wonderful chemistry between the actors in the show translates every bit as wonderfully here.
Jonathan Frid is terrifyingly magnetic, while Grayson Hall, Thayer David and Nancy Barrett are particularly strong in support.All in all, by far the best of the 'Dark Shadows' films and the only one to be as good as the show.
Produced and directed by the multi-talented Dan Curtis, "House of Dark Shadows" delivers plenty of macabre atmosphere, sinister decors and filming locations, intriguing characters and a surprisingly big amount of typically late 60's/early 70's graphic gore.
There was more gore in this film but it was necessary...the Barnabas Collins character was less sympathetic and characters were killed who didn't suffer such fate on the day time soap opera such as Nancy Barrett,Thayer David and Louis Edmonds characters.
It captures Jonathan Frid, Joan Bennett, Grayson Hall and many of the cast on film, in character, during the time of the original Dark Shadows-mania.
The production, by Dan Curtis is marvelous, but he takes the characters too, too far away from their television characterizations; at times, they seem like strangers.If considered another in the band of Dark Shadows' "Parallel Time", it works.
******* House of Dark Shadows (1970) Dan Curtis ~ Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, Joan Bennett.
as a baby boomer i sort of remember the series dark shadows,for its time it was creepy and scary.werewolves,vampires,time travel,a Gothic old house,and the blue whale tavern.and this was a soap opera during the late 60's thru the 70's.i recently seen this on turner classics,i know a bit late,but never seen the sequel yet either.the movie is good and does the TV show justice.all the same cast members.Jonathan frid as Barnabas Collins the vampire with his sinister cane with a wolves(?) head.a guy my sister dated in the 70's had a cane like Barnabas,i don't think it was the original.maybe it was but as a horror buff i was in awe of the cane.i remember reading through that great magazine famous monsters of film-land for tidbits on the series.and the upcoming movie.
I thought that this would turn out to be the teaser kind of suspense where you wait for something terrifying to happen and it never does.But then the movie gets off to a better start with the entrance of the cousin from England, Barnabas Collins (JONATHAN FRID repeating his famous TV role).
She appears from time to time just long enough to warrant a couple of close-ups and then disappears from the plot for long periods of time.But that's not much of a handicap in this case because JONATHAN FRID, GRAYSON HALL (as a doctor who wants to give him a new life as a normal man who can thrive in daylight) and NANCY BARRETT as Carolyn (who becomes an ethereal vampire), as well as others in the large cast, do a fine job of maintaining the suspense and horror up until the last moment.The bloodletting is pretty horrific at times but anyone who loves vampire films is not likely to be upset by the realism.
Made in 1970,"House of Dark Shadows" has some genuinely tension-building moments and quite a few decent scares.It may be dated for some,but it works as a creepy vampiric horror.The atmosphere is very dark and eerie,and the setting is wonderful.If you liked this one don't forget to watch its sequel "Night of Dark Shadows"(1971).Recommended!.
Vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) is released from his prison and searches for a cure to his affliction, so he can marry the incarnation of his lost love (Kathryn Leigh Scott).When you have something directed by Dan Curtis, you know it will be good.
If you get the script to this movie you will see that Dan Curtis proved himself as very capable of following Sam Hall's direction(written in the script, shot for shot) of how to turn the 1st couple of years of Dark Shadows soap opera into an amazingly good low budget film.
a must see film if you like scary movies,as this is one of the best vampire films ever made.being a motion picture a lot more blood is shown than the t.v soap could show.the vampire barnabas collins is more evil than the one portrayed in the soap opera.excellent use of locations in Tarrytown New York,including the Lyndhurst estate.music composer Robert Cobert's score very effective,as he has scored most of director Dan Curtis other films..
There is some atmospheric photography of Lyndhurst, the Gothic mansion in Tarrytown, NY that stands in for the original Collinwood (a mansion in Newport, RI, currently being used as a boys' dormitory--the first time I visited the house I was jarred by the sounds of a Metallica record blaring out of one of the windows).As was the case with the sequel Night of Dark Shadows, the final release print of this movie was substantially cut down from Director Dan Curtis' submission to MGM.
Dan Curtis, not as bound by restrictions regarding censorship and budget, brings the recurring storyline of centuries-old vampire Barnabas Collins and the tragic consequences of his presence and predatory behavior from the television soap opera to the big screen and shows that he has an eye for atmosphere, menace and dread in this Gothic melodrama.
Dr. Julia Hoffman(Grayson Hall), a physician called upon by family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard(..Joan Bennett, who is actually underused in the film)to help solve the violent attack of a female employee, along with scholarly Professor T Eliot Stokes(Thayer David), has studied the blood of the victim, believing she can cure Barnabas, subsequently falling in love with him during the healing process.
Karlen's Willie is his Renfield-like slave who must do as ordered by his master.Most of the cast from the soap opera at the time have a role in the movie, but this is Jonathan Frid's movie all the way.
For the past year, I've been watching the classic Dark Shadows series, and I thought this movie was done pretty well.
If you love the series, you may enjoy HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS!!!.
Most of the major characters are back for those who did not get to watch the daily serial "Dark Shadows" in this big screen version of that Dan Curtis campfest.
HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, which has that rushed feeling we'd all come to know and love on the series itself, has at least one very noticeable goof: when Elizabeth Collins (Joan Bennett) pops up for the very first time, microphones are clearly visible in the lower part of the frame.
Being a fan of the soap opera TV series, Dark Shadows, I didn't know what to expect.
The complete shooting script was published in "The Dark Shadows Movies Book", and one can see where a lot of essential material got scissored from the film.Barnabas Collins was the perfect vampire for the groovy 1960s and 1970s.
Although not as frightening as I remember it (I was eight the first time, however) it is a nicely lurid, Gothic chiller based on the popular soap opera series about the vampire, Barnabas Collins, and his clan.