Night of Dark Shadows

If ever a film needed restoration, this is it. Creepy atmospheric follow-up to House of Dark Shadows lacks the coherent plot of the first picture. Apparently the studio forced director Dan Curtis to cut his 2 hour movie down to 90 minutes so it could be sold as a double feature with House of Dark Shadows or other horror flicks--and it shows. It often doesn't make any sense and you wind up frustrated, as if you just had a good dream but can't remember it all. Word is that a complete uncut print has been recently discovered. A new DVD release of this picture restoring the missing pieces would be a big seller among Dark Shadows fans and horror film aficionados alike.

For whatever reasons, perhaps largely due to reported editing room butchery, this film seems like a lump of scrapings from the bottom of the barrel of Dan Curtis's Gothic horror imagination. Several fine actors are wasted in a half-baked narrative about the efforts of young, handsome Quentin Collins (David Selby) to shake off the stubborn curse of his ancestors when he returns to the family estate in "Maine" (ha! you mean the Hudson Valley) with his fresh-faced new bride (Kate Jackson). Whereas "House of Dark Shadows" the year before incorporated plot strands from its parent TV series, this spin-off tries (and fails) to come up with a new story line involving ghosts from centuries past repeatedly taking control of Quentin's mind, making him act like one of his evil ancestors which results in spousal abuse. Nancy Barrett and John Karlen play a couple who live nearby and try to help Quentin sort things out; the lack of integration of their characters is among the most glaring signs of post-production tampering with content. Grayson Hall is the oddly fashionable and immaculate caretaker who is actually a reincarnation of a 19th century family member. Thayer David appears too briefly in a couple of hallucinatory flashbacks as a priest who supervises the hanging of the witch Lara Parker, another ghost of the past who also appears too briefly.

Much of Robert Cobert's music, particularly the underscoring in establishing shots, is annoyingly inappropriate. In the TV series his compositions enhanced virtually every scene and contributed much to the otherworldly mood. Not so much here.

Many outdoor scenes are shot in crude day-for-night fashion, sometimes under bright blue skies which cause actors' faces to disappear amid the glare. A maintenance worker in the house is cast with an actor who resembles Selby so closely that you keep mixing them up. Is this intentional? Again – editing room chicanery or dumb casting? Will we ever know? Director's cut, please.

I think all the fans agree on one thing about this movie: it's the deleted scenes and the horrible editing job that prevent this movie from being the great ghost story it should be. But for me, having seen it just once on television, it could also do something about the extrenuous extra characters in the movie with vague connections to the ghost. The best ghost story only really needs the people who see the ghost and the ghost itself/herself. All the extra roles, the handyman, the psycho maid, the neighbors just barely provide the Collins some breathing room from the ghosts. Lara Parker does a very good job playing etherial and ephemeral as she portrays the ghost lurking just out of your mind's eye. David Selby and Kate Jackson have a wonderful chemistry, but the hestiant romance as well as the unnecessary flashbacks also do much to impair the flow of the story. John Karlen and Nancy Barrett, two of my faves from the series (John has a wonderful voice for mimmickry and Nancy's beauty has no bounds), seem to be only present to remind the watcher that this movie is based on a television series. Grayson Hall, much like Bette Davis, does a wonderful job playing a sinister and unpredictable old bat of a housekeeper. As a whole, the film is rather fair, but what it lacks in the style of a ghost movie such as The Legend Of Hell House, it more than makes up in atmosphere.

In 1975 I was a freelance writer in New York. During that year I was honored to interview stage and screen actress and one of the stars from Dark Shadows, Grayson Hall. It was during this interview that I learned why NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS was such a bad film.

The late Ms. Hall related a story which told of how MGM called her husband, "Dark Shadows writer" Sam Hall and told him that he would have to fly out to California and edit out nearly 30 min. from his latest film. After his sad task was done he returned home and shortly thereafter the film was released. It was not up to the standards the the series nor MGM's hit from just the year before "House of Dark Shadows" had. The idea was excellent. Dialog well written, stylishly photographed and wonderful performances from the cast. The problem was the fact that the feature made little sense. It plotted along for 90 min's filled with questions and vagueness.

However, the good news is that most of the edited footage has been found and is now in the process of being re-edited. Night of Dark Shadows, through the popularity of the series, is in a sense going to be re-born. Sam Hall's work shall now be seen as it was created. Perhaps then we will be able to appreciate this classic haunted house story, the way it should be, without studio butchering.

This is the 2nd film inspired by the late 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Having done a bang-up job with the first movie (House of Dark Shadows), they decided to go a different direction here.

There is no lead vampire Barnabas Collins. There is, however, a great setting in a big famous old house that has gothic fun written all over it! This setting, and the fine performances by David Selby, Kate Jackson, Lara Parker, and Grayson Hall help immensely.

The story and final product, however, suffer due to major studio-ordered edits. We are left with a poorly strung together and not very scary narrative, and only an occasional mild chill. Too bad, because Dan Curtis knows how to make beautifully-filmed gothic stories, but his hands were tied and the result is disappointing. It's worth a look for curiosity factor and setting, for fans of the series, and for the great cast.