I had been a hardcore fan of Dark Shadows for two years when this movie was released in 1968. I recall coming into the theatre and hearing somebody say to a friend, "So what did you think of it?" and receiving the reply, "Lots of teeth, lots of blood." Sadly, that pretty much sums up this picture's appeal. 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. Unfortunately all the scenes sliced from the original print basically established the characters and their motivations. The bare bones (or should that be fangs) of the story survives intact. If you know nothing about the mystique or the legend of Dark Shadows, this will be an enjoyable, reasonably stylish horror film in the manner of the late Sixties, with some realism but hardly the splatter-gore factor that hit horror movies after the huge success of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the early 70s.
The ensemble cast works very well, given that all of these people had been working together for three or four years at this point. Outstanding are Jonathan Frid's enigmatically menacing vampire Barnabas Collins--the pain and vulnerability Frid emotes with his eyes at certain sequences is really quite striking; Grayson Hall's superb portrayal of medico-on-the-verge Dr. Julia Hoffman (Barbara Steele, who reprised the role in a 1990 remake, complained that Grayson was "excruciatingly good" in the part), and excellent character actor Thayer David's surprisingly complex portrayal of Professor T. Eliot Stokes. Nancy Barrett as doomed heiress Carolyn Stoddard is a beautiful, fragile, Gothic presence. Emmy winner John Karlen (who went on to appear in another cult vampire film, Daughters of Darkness, a couple months later in Belgium this year) makes Willie Loomis one of the best roles of his career. Joan Bennett is patrician and unforgettable in what amounts to a cameo appearance as the family matriarch.
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. Unfortunately all the scenes sliced from the original print basically established the characters and their motivations. The bare bones (or should that be fangs) of the story survives intact. If you know nothing about the mystique or the legend of Dark Shadows, this will be an enjoyable, reasonably stylish horror film in the manner of the late Sixties, with some realism but hardly the splatter-gore factor that hit horror movies after the huge success of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the early 70s.
The ensemble cast works very well, given that all of these people had been working together for three or four years at this point. Outstanding are Jonathan Frid's enigmatically menacing vampire Barnabas Collins--the pain and vulnerability Frid emotes with his eyes at certain sequences is really quite striking; Grayson Hall's superb portrayal of medico-on-the-verge Dr. Julia Hoffman (Barbara Steele, who reprised the role in a 1990 remake, complained that Grayson was "excruciatingly good" in the part), and excellent character actor Thayer David's surprisingly complex portrayal of Professor T. Eliot Stokes. Nancy Barrett as doomed heiress Carolyn Stoddard is a beautiful, fragile, Gothic presence. Emmy winner John Karlen (who went on to appear in another cult vampire film, Daughters of Darkness, a couple months later in Belgium this year) makes Willie Loomis one of the best roles of his career. Joan Bennett is patrician and unforgettable in what amounts to a cameo appearance as the family matriarch.