This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

'Dark Shadows' is one of those shows that wholly deserves its popularity and its reputation as a classic. There are a few films based on it, and while they're all watchable in varying ways quality-wise they're mixed.By far the best of them is this, 'House of Dark Shadows'. To me also, it's the only film to be as good as the show, not quite on the same level but almost as good. Its only real problems are some characters not given enough screen time or development, especially Elizabeth and Maggie, and Joan Bennett being very underused as Elizabeth that she doesn't shine anywhere near as much as in the show.'House of Dark Shadows' however is visually an improvement over the show's production values, with the exception of a couple of goofs and bloopers which didn't hurt the film at all. The production and costume design are lavish and splendidly Gothic, and it's all photographed stunningly and boasts some surprisingly good special effects. The music is suitably moody, and evokes a real eeriness.The script has a good balance of the funny and the tense, and the story is never dull, is always fun and has some real nerve-shredding tension and bone-chilling shock. The highlight was the somewhat poetic ending, which is also a masterclass in sheer galvanising horror and incredible Gothic imagery. There is a good deal of gore, but it's used chillingly and is never overused or gratuitous. Dan Curtis directs beautifully and intelligently, never once undermining the tension, suspense or horror and doesn't make the mistakes of not having enough of either or over-crowding the film with them.Most of the characters are interesting, particularly Barnabas and Julia, and the wonderful chemistry between the actors in the show translates every bit as wonderfully here. The acting is uniformly good, with only Bennett not shining as much as she could have done due to being so underused. Jonathan Frid is terrifyingly magnetic, while Grayson Hall, Thayer David and Nancy Barrett are particularly strong in support.All in all, by far the best of the 'Dark Shadows' films and the only one to be as good as the show. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I always wanted to see the "Dark Shadows" TV-series, but never had the courage to actually start… Six or seven years ago, I was thrilled to have found the first 35 episodes on DVD, but then I discovered there's a total of nearly 600 episodes, so what's the point? I tracked down the two spin-off films instead, hoping hoping that it wouldn't require extended knowledge of the TV-series. Luckily it doesn't, so all of you who're interested in this cult franchise as well, rest assured that the movies stand on their own as solid and creepily entertaining Gothic horror classics. Produced and directed by the multi-talented Dan Curtis, "House of Dark Shadows" delivers plenty of macabre atmosphere, sinister decors and filming locations, intriguing characters and a surprisingly big amount of typically late 60's/early 70's graphic gore. You know the type of gore I'm referring to, don't you? The thick and flashy red blood that spurts out of peoples' chests when they're impaled by wooden stakes! The plot of "House of Dark Shadows" is simple, efficient and actually very reminiscent to Bram Stoker's legendary tale of "Dracula" only with different character names and a contemporary New England setting. 19th Century vampire patriarch Barnabas Collins is resurrected from his tomb and mingles with his present day descendants by pretending he's a distant relative from another continent. The beautiful Maggie Evans immediately catches Barnabas' attention, since she looks exactly like his long lost lover Josette. But poor (?) Barnabas is too popular with the ladies, as also young cousin Carolyn and the acclaimed female Doctor Julia Hoffman fall in love with him. Carolyn gets turned into a vampire and terrorizes the area, while Dr. Hoffman intends to cure Barnabas' vampirism through a series of medical injections. The latter sub plot is definitely the freshest and most inventive part of the film because, as said, the rest is fairly similar to "Dracula". Maggie Evans is more or less Mina, her fiancée Jeff is Harker, Carolyn is Lucy and Professor Eliot Stokes is a bleaker version of Prof. Van Helsing. This is merely an observation, not so much a point of criticism since I was very much amused by "House of Dark Shadows" from start to finish. Jonathan Frid's performance as Barnabas Collins is inarguably one of the film's major strongpoints. He depicts the vampire character as a crossover between a despicable monster and a troubled romanticist; which is a style that became often copied in later vampire movies. It's a fun flick, with creepy music and settings as well as a devoted cast and crew! Very much recommended to horror lovers young and old (but preferably a tad bit older, since this doesn't resemble nowadays rubbish such as "Twilight" at all!)

I re-watched this last night. For the past year, I've been watching the classic Dark Shadows series, and I thought this movie was done pretty well. I love how they actually play the theme (unlike Tim Burton's version) They tried so hard to re-film scenes from episodes 211- 300ish and cram it all into a 90 minute movie. Their cut scenes felt like they cut it too short and went on to something else. In the beginning of the show, Barnabas was very much a monster and killed people, but as the series progressed, he sorta became a good guy and helped people. This film shows Barnabas as he was in the beginning; a vampire that killed people and forced Willie Loomis to be his servant. After attacking Carolyn, Barnabas becomes attracted to Maggie Evans, who be believes is his lost love, Josette DuPres re-incarnated.If you didn't watch the show, you'd probably have no idea what's going on. The film starts so suddenly it feels like it's in the middle of one of the episodes. No story as to who the Collins family are. No mention of Victoria Winters. No backstory as to how Barnabas became a vampire, and not mentioned how or why Dr. Hoffman, Jeff Clark, or Professor Stokes are there (but in the series, it's all explained. This film doesn't run con-current with the series, so it's not meant to be a sequel to the show) It has its faults, but it's a pretty worthy film based on the series. If you love the series, you may enjoy HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS!!!

HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS is quintessential fan-based filmmaking: timed to cash in on the popularity of the then still-airing-daily soap opera, it featured most of the players from the show- but with one notable omission: Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters. (Ms. Moltke would go on to fame- or infamy- as the mistress of alleged would-be murderer Claus von Bulow.) One of the many delights of DARK SHADOWS were the gaffes: someone flubbed a line at least once in every episode (which may be an exaggeration, but not by much) and there were so many on-air blunders that entire recordings of just the bloopers have been popular since the show went off the air. HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, which has that rushed feeling we'd all come to know and love on the series itself, has at least one very noticeable goof: when Elizabeth Collins (Joan Bennett) pops up for the very first time, microphones are clearly visible in the lower part of the frame. When I first saw that, it took me back to the show I'd grown up loving. You can't ask for more than that.