Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Teddie Blake 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.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

BA_Harrison Painter Quentin Collins (David Selby) and his wife Tracy (Kate Jackson) move into ancestral home Collinwood unaware that the place is haunted by several ghosts, with the malevolent spirit of Charles Collins seeking to possess his descendant.With its running time drastically reduced from well over two hours to a mere 95 minutes thanks to studio interference, it comes as no surprise that the theatrical cut of Dan Curtis' Night of Dark Shadows lacks coherence and suffers from serious pacing issues. Painfully slow and frequently unfathomable, the film limps awkwardly from one dreary scene to the next with little evidence of Curtis's usually assured hand.No doubt a fully restored director's cut of Night of Dark Shadows would be an improvement (it could hardly be any worse), but as it stands—cut to shreds and making very little sense—the film is a huge step down from the previous Dark Shadows big-screen outing, House of Dark Shadows (1970).

moonspinner55 Well, almost... David Selby plays Quentin Collins, a talented young artist who moves his wife and himself into the woodsy estate once owned by his ancestors, who were involved in witchcraft and may still be hanging around; Grayson Hall is the caretaker of the manor, who knows all its dark secrets (she tells the handyman, "Everything's different now!"). Dan Curtis' continuation of themes he began with the television serial "Dark Shadows" has its effective moments, despite MGM forcing cuts to shorten the original running-time (the film is a second-cousin to the TV show out of necessity, not by design, after Jonathan Frid refused to return as Barnabas Collins, forcing Curtis in a new direction). Robert Cobert contributes a spooky score, although there is so much one-finger tapping on a piano that one gets the feeling everyone is walking around with their own keyboard. Cinematographer Robert Shore does excellent work on a tight budget, and nobody stages a creepy nightmare like Curtis (this one has a shuddery funeral in the rain, capped with a lonesome church bell and a woman laughing hysterically). The reincarnation plot isn't much, and Selby is too colorless an actor to be much of presence (or a threat), but the dark, damp location--with spirits around every corner--provides the perfect place for things that go bump in the night. ** from ****

gavin6942 A painter (David Selby) and his wife (Kate Jackson) move into a home and find themselves plagued by ghosts and spirits of his ancestors that used to be witches.As this was written, directed and produced by the legendary Dan Curtis, there is pretty much no way it could be bad. Perhaps fans of the series were a bit disappointed that it wandered off from the core storyline, but hey, this still has the same great atmosphere that Curtis has created in other films (notably "Burnt Offerings").Allegedly, MGM forced Curtis to cut over 35 minutes from his finished film, and gave him only 24 hours to do the job. So the film went from approximately 129 minutes to about 94 minutes, which, according to some, caused the film to lose its coherence. I can definitely see that, and as a Curtis fan, I do wish there was a way to get that extended version back. Who knows? If they did it with "Nightbreed", maybe they can do it here.

hokeybutt NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS (2+ outta 5 stars) Kind of a dull semi-sequel to the previous "House of Dark Shadows"... this movie has almost nothing to do with the characters from the previous film... or the long-running TV series. Quentin Collins (David Selby) is the main character... but anyone hoping to see him reprise his werewolf persona will be disappointed. Instead, he plays a painter who comes to stay at Collinswood with his young bride (a young Kate Jackson) but who is tormented by deja vu and haunted by dreams of a long-dead ancestor. At night he is visited by the ghost of Angelique Collins (Lara Parker) who was long ago the mistress of the man who now seeks to take control of Quentin's mind and body. The movie isn't really terrible... it had some good performances and some haunting imagery (the hanging scene is particularly eerie)... but the story gets very confused at times. (The result, apparently, of some severe editing before the movie could be released.) The ending in particular seems a little hurried and unclear. Not a lot of blood and gore in this movie (in contrast to the previous "House")... it tries to be scary in a more subtle way. Hopefully one day the original, longer cut of the movie will be released.