Review of Night of Dark Shadows (1971) by Jerry H — 13 Feb 2010

I love anything and everything Dark Shadows but even the most hard core Dark Shadows fan will tell you that this could have been much better. Painter Quentin Collins and his wife move back to the old Collinwood mansion and before you can say "Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production" Quentin is being haunted by the ghost of Angelique, the beautiful and mesmerizing Lara Parker, who was hung as a witch some 200 years ago.

Kate Jackson is Quebtin's wife and John Karlen and Nancy Barrett play their friend and next door neighbors. The brilliant Grayson Hall is also on hand as the maid. The film was released after the series was cancelled and rumor has it, and I have the script, the films original running time was roughly 129 mins.

Mgm wanted to release the on a double bill with House Of Dark Shadows and demanded 39 mins be cut from the film (in 3 days). So if it seems that most of the film is hard to follow and plotlines are started just to be completely dropped your completely right.

David Selby was one of Dark Shadows most popular characters but this film just doesn't give himanything to do. The cast is all uniformly fine with Lara parker a standout as the beautiful witch Angelique.

The settings and photography are also good but the films script makes no sense. People have been talking for years about a compolete restoration, and a lot of the cut footage has been found, but alas with no sound.

So I guess we'll just have to stick to our old vhs copies for the time being until something better comes along. Rated GP. MGM.