Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)   CLICK HERE to buy from   CLICK HERE to buy from Blu-ray   CLICK HERE to buy from V.O.D.   CLICK HERE to buy from German and English language   CLICK HERE to buy from Blu-ray German and English language Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

Painter Quentin (David Selby) and his wife Tracy Collins (Kate Jackson) move to Collinwood Manor, a mansion in the possession of Quentin's family for centuries. At first, everything's great, but then Quentin starts to see things, like a woman hanged by her neck in the trees, or a terrified little girl. He also has nightmares of a rather disturbing nature. At first, he thinks it's just his nerves, but a talk with the housekeeper Carlotta Drake (Grayson Hall) sheds a disturbing light on things: Apparently the hanged woman was Angelique (Lara Parker), who had been condemned a witch back 150 years ago, and she was actually executed in the very trees Quentin saw her, and the terrified girl was Sarah (Monica Rich), a girl very much attached to Angelique. Now Carlotta claims she's actually the reincarnation of Sarah who has been looking for a way to bring Angelique back - and Quentin might just do the trick, as he is the reincarnation of Angelique's lover Charles. Now there's a catch though, Angelique wasn't really a witch but the wife of Charles' brother Gabriel (Christopher Pennock), and when Gabriel found out they had an affair, he and Charles' wife Laura (Diana Millay) conspired to have her killed.

Now Quentin believes every word of Carlotta's tale, also because her story corresponds with the things he's seeing 100%, but there's a problem: Charles' spirit takes over Quentin more and more, so much so that he sometimes mistakes Tracy for Charles' wife Laura and acts violent towards her, even tries to kill her at one point, and it's only thanks to their friends Alex (John Karlen) and Claire (Nancy Barrett) that he doesn't succeed. However this angers Carlotta, who orders the Manor's stableboy Gerard (Jim Storm) to go after Tracy, Alex and Claire. Quentin meanwhile has come to his senses, but he might be too late to save them ...

After House of Dark Shadows, a spin-off of the then popular horror daily soap Dark Shadows, became a success of the box office, it should come as no surprise that a sequel was pushed into production - but there was one snag, Jonathan Frid, lead of the earlier movie, refused to reprise his signature role as vampire Barnabas Collins, and given his popularity in the role, it made no sense to replace him. So it was decided to base this movie on the other lead character of Dark Shadows, Quentin Collins (as played by David Selby), who didn't appear in House of Dark Shadows at all and had therefore a clean slate for this movie. This though also means that the two films are totally unrelated, and Night of Dark Shadows is even only based very loosely on a subplot of the TV series. As a result, Night of Dark Shadows didn't do as well at the box office as the earlier movie.

Taken by its own merits though, Night of Dark Shadows isn't at all bad. Now ok, I'd be hard-pressed to call the film "inventive" or "original", but it's a solid supernatural tale about ghosts and reincarnation, that might have its lacks in reason (even within genre confines), but makes up for it in atmospheric filmmaking and well-conceived creepy setpieces - a result of Dark Shadows the series having by then run its course and producer/director Dan Curtis being free to put more care into this one than into House of Dark Shadows. Also the movie features some wonderfully moody locations to full effect, and solid acting by all involved make this a very ok old-fashioned horror night. It's not the reinvention of the wheel perhaps, and the story seems a bit choppy, but if old school horror's your thing, it's not a bad way at all to spend 90+ minutes.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Night of Dark Shadows at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Night of Dark Shadows here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai Something naughty? (Must be over 18 to go there!)   find Night of Dark Shadows at adultvideouniverse.com

Thanks for watching !!!