Dark Shadows DVD Collection 7
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Donna Wandrey, Herbert Holcombe, House Jameson, Marsha Mason, Roger Davis (II)Brand: MPI
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 840 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-08-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Mpi Home Video
Product features:
- With its alluring tales of Gothic mystery and supernatural intrigue, Dark Shadows became one of the most popular daytime series of all time. Since first airing on ABC-TV from 1966-71, Dark Shadows has earned the reputation as being one of the most unusual and enduring programs in television history. The character of Barnabas Collins, a guilt-ridden 175 year-old vampire, brought the show tremendous
Movie Reviews of Dark Shadows DVD Collection 7
Movie Review: The 1795 storyline ends, Angelique follows Barnabas to the present, and Barnabas has to move over.
Summary: 5 Stars
DARK SHADOWS is the cult classic soap opera, famous for the 175-year-old vampire Barnabas Collins, a sympathetic villain who becomes a dark hero. A major step in this transformation is the 1795 storyline, which presents a human Barnabas cursed by the witch Angelique. The curse now reaches the pinnacle of its cruelty. It's driven Barnabas's true love Josette to suicide; now it does the same for Barnabas's mother Naomi. Not only does Barnabas lose his mother, he knows she died because she knew what he was.
In #460, there's an attempt to resolve the discrepancies between what happened in 1795 and what we expected -- discrepancies resulting from Anthony George leaving the show. Barnabas's father Joshua resolves to expunge the horrors that have befallen the Collins family from all written histories. Alas, that doesn't cover the present-day Barnabas's accounts of his past, particularly his speech to Julia Hoffman in #345 (set 4).
Joshua promises to end Angelique's curse by shooting Barnabas with a silver bullet during the day. But Joshua breaks that promise, IMHO because of his arrogance and egotism; he can't stand to have his own legacy destroyed, regardless of where that leave Barnabas -- which is trapped in his coffin until Willie Loomis accidentally releases him 175 years later and 250 episodes earlier. After so much suffering, it's understandable that present-day Barnabas is angry, vengeful, and cruel.
BTW, it might be interesting to watch the 1795 episodes before watching DS from the beginning, so you can judge present-day Barnabas's actions in light of what he's suffered.
Vctoria Winters, who took us to the past, now returns us to the present when she's hanged for witchcraft and the gallows serves as a time machine. At the big moment, she hears the voice of her lover, Peter Bradford, promising he'll find her. We subsequently meet Jeff Clark, a dead ringer for Bradford, who can't remember his past.
We return to the exact time and place we left in episode #365 (set 4) -- the seance in Collinwood's drawing room -- although the tableau in #461 doesn't quite match. When replaying #365 to verify this, I was reminded that the ghost of Sarah -- Barnabas's little sister who prompted the seance -- swore never to appear to anyone again. This helps me accept her being completely dropped from the story when we return to the present.
But I can't accept a logical error that ignores the ramifications of time travel. Barnabas seems to still have his ORIGINAL memories of the ORIGINAL past. Now that Vicki's been back there, his memories should have changed to include her.
BTW, Julia's hairdo changes, in #462, to the one seen throughout the rest of the series.
Barnabas gets a shock when Vicki brings home a portrait of Angelique. I half wish that Vicki's seeing the portrait and being compelled to buy it had happened onscreen, but then we wouldn't have shared Barnabas's shock when the portrait is revealed.
Angelique then shows up in the flesh, as the brunette named Cassandra, who Roger Collins has impulsively married. The timing couldn't be worse for Barnabas, because he's escaped the curse with the help of Dr. Eric Lang. Lang encounters Barnabas when Barnabas is taken to the hospital after being involved in a car accident -- an interesting modern-day twist on the vampire scenario. Lang applies a medical treatment that works much better that Dr. Hoffman's did earlier. This is a DS milestone, but it seems anticlimactic for Lang to cure Barnabas in one night after the lengthy failed treatment with Dr. Hoffman.
Angelique/Cassandra strikes back with the "dream curse," which I see as a metaphor for a real-life problem. The curse involves a nightmare that plagues someone, driving the person toward insanity until he/she tells the nightmare to someone else, who was then plagued by it until he/she tells it to someone else, and so on, until the nightmare reaches its final victim, Barnabas. While this is an inefficient way to curse someone, it may strike a responsive chord in some viewers. Have you ever had someone unload a guilty secret or personal problem on you that you really didn't want to hear about? Have you ever been guilty of doing this inappropriately because you just had to unload, regardless of the consequences?
This set introduces Professor T. Eliot Stokes, descendent of 1795's Ben Stokes. This is one of many examples of Thayer David's versatility. Ben was uneducated and working-class; the professor is erudite and academic. Both characters contrast sharply with the evil Matthew Morgan and other villains he will play in future storylines.
A more significant character introduced in this set is Adam, the modern-day Frankenstein's monster who begins the next major storyline. Adam's creator is Dr. Lang -- whose assistant is the aforementioned Jeff Clark -- who convinces Barnabas to provide the necessary "life force." The idea is for Barnabas to permanently escape the curse by moving into Adam's body. (On top of Cassandra's dream curse, Dr. Lang's medical cure may be temporary.)
But Lang dies of a heart attack, Barnabas and Adam both live, and there's a mysterious link between them. Episode #491 is noteworthy for Robert Rodan's portrayal of the "newborn" Adam, who behaves exactly like an angry, frightened child.
Two technical bloopers: In #486, Lang is recording a message on tape -- regarding the aforementioned Barnabas/Adam link -- but the tape isn't running. In #477 Cassandra is working magic with a cigarette lighter that goes out and has to be relit.
Bonus interviews: Kathryn Leigh Scott and Ben Martin (Time magazine senior photographer) each discuss Scott's publishing company, Pomegranate Press. Director Lela Swift tells the apocryphal story of Louis Edmonds reshooting a scene with no pants on. Nancy Barrett analyzes Carolyn
In the next set, the story of Adam continues and so does the dream curse.
Summary of Dark Shadows DVD Collection 7
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