Dark Shadows: The Vampire Curse

Dark Shadows: The Vampire Curse is a complicated film, because it isn't actually a movie in the traditional sense, what it is a compilation of scenes from select episodes of the Gothic soap-opera Dark Shadows. The scenes are cut together as if to appear they are on fluid film, rather than just a bunch of scenes compiled together. The "film" serves to tell the story behind Barnabas Collins, the love triangle with Angelique and Josette, and how he was cursed and became a Vampire. I am kind of surprised that this movie came to be in my collection, because it is actually really hard to find any information about it, or how it came into existence, that being said, if you ever intend to watch Dark Shadows (the movie starring Johnny Depp), I would actually recommend watching this to get the back story on the character. Surprisingly since I have only seen a few reruns of the series, and hardly remember those, this film is actually easy to follow and doesn't require a knowledge of the show in order to enjoy. Dark Shadows takes place in a fictional town on the coast of Maine (near Bar Harbor) called Collinsport. The town was founded by the Collins family in the 1700s, the majority of the television series takes place in the 1960s, but this film mostly takes place back in the 1700s and tells the story of how Barnabas became cursed to become a vampire. The editing of the scenes to make it into one fluid story is actually really well done, and with a few exceptions is pretty seamless, though there a few moments it is a bit choppy. The only real continuity issue, which obviously can't be helped is that since the film ends in the 1960s with Barnabas' return to Collinsport from his tomb, which is where the television series actually began, which means that the end of the film is in black and white where as the rest is in colour, also the character who played Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) was notably younger in the last scenes as he was in the earlier scenes. For being a television soap-opera the acting is fairly decent, and the production for being made between 1966 and 1971 actually looks pretty decent. It is interesting how in many ways Dark Shadows served as a major inspiration for supernatural television dramas that would come to follow. It is refreshing that on daytime television when all of the channels were playing soap-operas aimed towards bored housewives, that ABC ran a soap-opera featuring horror and supernatural themes for 5 years. The story line that is created in this compilation of scenes shows the fantastic writing that was done on the series, and the lore that was created behind it, that there is a 3 hour movie worth of back story to Barnabas becoming a vampire. Would I recommend this film? Yes, I definitely would. Definitely worth a watch, though at a three hour run time, it is definitely a time commitment, also it is light on action, and much of it is told through dialogue and drama. It is slow paced, but honestly really well done, and the drama and story telling makes the film definitely engrossing. This is definitely a film worth watching, maybe not for everyone, but I am really glad I watched it. The acting for being made from scenes of a television series is actually really well done, and the roles well cast. Not a must watch for everyone, but for fans of classic horror drama, and fans of the Dark Shadows series, definitely a joy to watch.