Master of Dark Shadows

Keen DVD on the beloved Dark Shadows. Wow was Dan Curtis driven he will never be forgotten, Dark Shadows gave such depth to my teen years. A special DVD.

I've loved this show for the last 7 years. I got into it in 2012, right after seeing Tim Burton's adaptation of it. I was intrigued, so I wanted to give the show a try, and I'm glad I did. I finished the whole series in 2013, and I'm now re-watching it again, and today, I finally watched this documentary.

There might be some spoilers in this review! It's absolutely wonderful and very informative about Dan Curtis and how Dark Shadows came to be. You see the kind of man he was, what inspired him to create the show, how the show was almost cancelled, how Barnabas Collins made Dark Shadows great again, all the fan mail, the peak of its popularity, appearances on game shows and parades, and Dan's work after Dark Shadows ended.

It also has some great special features, like an old episode of a 1950's show called 'The Web' where the episode has strong similarities to a story arc on the show about Elizabeth Stoddard never leaving the house, and Jason Maguire blackmailing her, and Jonathan Frid dressing up as Barnabas at the White House on Halloween 1969 for Richard Nixon's daughter! 7 years later, and this show still intrigues me!

If you absolutely love anything Dark Shadows, I highly recommend MASTER OF DARK SHADOWS!!!

Dark Shadows, Dan Curtis' initial idea was a failure, given 4 weeks notice for cancellation. His young children gave him the suggestion to introduce a Vampire in the soap. Then Dan threatened John Frid to be in yet a 2nd movie about the series, "Night of Dark Shadows", fearing he would be permanently typecast John refused. Dan had ABC executive, Brandon Stoddard, not renew Mr. Frid's contract. A very brief time later the Network cancelled the long standing TV series "Dark Shadows."

Now I have to admit one thing at the beginning: I've never seen the original TV show (yet). So when I watched the documentary I might not have the same relationship to it, than others will have. And yet still, I was more than entertained. Almost everyone involved in the making of Dark Shadows is part of the movie. And while it is an overall look at Dan Curtis, it does concentrate on his Dark Shadows creation.

So even for me, I had quite a lot of fun, while I probably missed some inside jokes. But clips from the show are shown and you get the jist of it. Also editing wise, this goes down the timeline as it "happened" chronologically speaking. If you like documentaries in general or are a fan of the show I can only recommend this!