Review of Night of Dark Shadows (1971) by Michael T — 19 Nov 2012

House of Dark Shadows (1970) was successful enough to prompt Dan Curtis to direct another big screen adaptation of his popular Gothic Horror afternoon Soap (1966-71). Canadian Shakespearean actor, Jonathan Frid, decided not to reprise the role of Barnabus Collins. As a result, Night of Dark Shadows has a new storyline and is not a rehash of the TV series. David Selby reprises his role of Quentin Collins from the TV series but the character was altered a bit for the movie. Lara Parker reprises her role as the sorceress Angelique from the TV series but the character was, again, altered for the movie (Angelique cursed Barnabus and turned him into a vampire in the TV Soap). Kate Jackson, in her first movie role, plays Quentin's wife, Tracy Collins. She had played a different character on the TV series and The Rookies, Charlies Angels, Scarecrow and Mrs. King and a host of TV movies lay ahead of her.

Quentin inherits Collinswood Manor after Elizabeth Stoddard-Collins passed away following the events of the previous movie; like Jonathan Frid, Joan Bennet chose not to be in this picture. Abstract artist Quentin movies in with new bide Tracy and immediately feels like he has been to Collinswood before. Soon he starts having nightmares, dreaming of events that occured during the life of his ancestor, Charles Collins, who Quentin resembles. Sinister housekeeper Carlotta Drake (Grayson Hall) knows more about what is happening than she is letting on.

As with House of Dark Shadows, I found that Curtis's pacing was slow. There are fewer charaters than in the previous film but the plot still seems to overwhelm the story at times. curtis does excell at maintaing a creepy atmosphere. Its Spring in New England but Collinswood seems very cold and isolated. Though House of Dark Shadows did enjoy a VHS release, Night has been unavailable on any home video format until its recent Blu-Ray release. Like House, its worth a look if you are a genre fan.