I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Excellent but underrated film

Don't Believe the Hype

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I probably rate this movie too low giving it 6/10 now that I know that they have cut some 40 minutes from it. This really shows in some sequences. However an over 2 hour version would probably have been too long. At 45 minutes of film the whole mystery behind the mansion and its previous inhabitants from over hundred years ago was clear by then. I think they better did cut a bit more in the second part as that was way less interesting than what happened after the whole revelation. The action scenes towards the ending were pretty awful. The solution seemed too easy and that's a sign that there is going to be some twist and indeed, a predictable one too. Enjoyable yes but the back story of the previous inhabitants was much more interesting than those of the new ones. I particularly liked how the story of the previous inhabitants was told in some kind of flashbacks.

This follow-up to House of Dark Shadows (both adapted from stories from the TV series) is about a painter who moves into the family estate with his new wife. He's soon troubled by dreams of the past that seem all too real. This was heavily edited before release with at least 30 minutes cut out. No doubt the unedited movie is superior to this mess. I haven't seen that one, however, so my review is for the edited version. It does have some things going for it: moody atmosphere and good camera-work. But the tension is limp and the plot is borderline incoherent. The movie just lacks excitement. As other reviewers have noted, the story bears a passing similarity to stories from better movies, which does it no favors by comparison. I did enjoy seeing a young Kate Jackson in her film debut. It's not a movie I would recommend unless you're a curious Dark Shadows fan who hasn't seen it yet.

For whatever reasons, perhaps largely due to reported editing room butchery, this film seems like a lump of scrapings from the bottom of the barrel of Dan Curtis's Gothic horror imagination. Several fine actors are wasted in a half-baked narrative about the efforts of young, handsome Quentin Collins (David Selby) to shake off the stubborn curse of his ancestors when he returns to the family estate in "Maine" (ha! you mean the Hudson Valley) with his fresh-faced new bride (Kate Jackson). Whereas "House of Dark Shadows" the year before incorporated plot strands from its parent TV series, this spin-off tries (and fails) to come up with a new story line involving ghosts from centuries past repeatedly taking control of Quentin's mind, making him act like one of his evil ancestors which results in spousal abuse. Nancy Barrett and John Karlen play a couple who live nearby and try to help Quentin sort things out; the lack of integration of their characters is among the most glaring signs of post-production tampering with content. Grayson Hall is the oddly fashionable and immaculate caretaker who is actually a reincarnation of a 19th century family member. Thayer David appears too briefly in a couple of hallucinatory flashbacks as a priest who supervises the hanging of the witch Lara Parker, another ghost of the past who also appears too briefly.Much of Robert Cobert's music, particularly the underscoring in establishing shots, is annoyingly inappropriate. In the TV series his compositions enhanced virtually every scene and contributed much to the otherworldly mood. Not so much here.Many outdoor scenes are shot in crude day-for-night fashion, sometimes under bright blue skies which cause actors' faces to disappear amid the glare. A maintenance worker in the house is cast with an actor who resembles Selby so closely that you keep mixing them up. Is this intentional? Again – editing room chicanery or dumb casting? Will we ever know? Director's cut, please.

Follow up to "House of Dark Shadows" has potential, but comes off as low-budget horror trash, due to a rush `butchering' by MGM editing before the film's release. As its predecessor, the eerie ghost story is beautifully filmed (in Tarrytown, NY), but the plot revolving around newlyweds moving in the old family estate that is haunted is nothing new and makes no sense at times.