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aion-rsa · 3 years

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House of Dark Shadows: The Craziest Vampire Movie You’ve Never Seen

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This article contains House of Dark Shadows spoilers.

In 1970 House of Dark Shadows flipped the vampire subgenre on its head. While certainly a B-horror in the Hammer mold, this chiller wasn’t satisfied with one bloodsucker, or even two. Instead Dark Shadows would turn nearly its whole cast into the ravenous undead, indiscriminately slaughtering beloved heroes and heroines, not caring for a second that they were also the stars of a daytime soap opera—one that was appointment TV for millions of kids across America.

Clearly it was a different time. And therein lies its charm.

When the television series Dark Shadows premiered in 1966, it wasn’t an instant pop culture phenomenon. Creator Dan Curtis was savvy enough to see the appeal in a daytime melodrama draped in a Gothic aesthetic, but he didn’t yet have the necessary hook for his central character as she stepped off a train in New England. Sure, mysterious Victoria Winters (Alexandria Isles) would meet the Collins family, who more or less ruled over the town of Collinsport from their ancestral home of Collinwood, but the reason to stick around only came about a year into the series’ original run.

That eureka moment turned out to be the dapper and effortlessly suave Jonathan Frid. Cast as Barnabas Collins, the Canadian theater actor was initially hired for a single storyline (a set number of episodes) as the heavy: Barnabas was an ancient and forgotten vampire, who’d been buried alive like the family’s dirty little secret after a curse condemned him to drink blood in 1795. Now he was out and wreaking havoc by feasting on the locals and obsessing over Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), whom he was convinced was the reincarnation of his lost love Josette—a fiancée who threw herself off a cliff in the 18th century rather than become Barnabas’ corpse bride.

It was morbid, obviously, but also romantic at a time when vampires were defined by the coldness of Christopher Lee or the goofiness of Scooby-Doo. Instead here was the most pitiable of creatures, one who doesn’t wish to be a vampire, and through impeccable manners and courtesies revealed a soft love for the Collins family, even when he preyed on them. Rather than create a great villain, Curtis inadvertently invented a tragic hero who audiences flocked to, both the typical daytime target demographic and also, surprisingly, kids and teenagers, who’d rush home from school to be lost in a melancholy land of eternal loves, ancient curses, and of course fangs.

Thus Dark Shadows became a blender for all things Gothic. Following in the success of Barnabas’ introduction, the series would go on to add ghosts, werewolves, séances, multiple stints of time travel, and one particularly devilish 18th century witch named Angelique (Lara Parker). It also appropriated every classic horror trope from Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, the Brontë sisters, and Edgar Allan Poe, and synthesized them for an audience that was now consuming it along with kid-friendly board games and trading cards.

So why not a movie, too? As early as 1968, Curtis began pursuing the idea of making a Dark Shadows movie, even while the series was still going. Eventually, House of Dark Shadows was the result. Released 50 years ago this week, this toothy amusement was the chance to do everything Curtis wanted with the series, but was prohibited from by Broadcast Standards and Practices censorship, budget constraints… and maybe even audiences’ good taste.

“Blood flows,” actor Roger Davis observed in The Dark Shadows Companion: The 25th Anniversary, which was edited by Scott. “It’s not like the serial. You have a few dabs of blood and the network brass have apoplexy. TV does a mock-up on life. This is in living color. And the vampires really bite.”

Whereas Dark Shadows, the television show, was appointment TV for those still in middle school, House of Dark Shadows was aimed directly at the drive-in crowd with its emphasis on blood gushing from neck wounds and stakes violently going into almost every character’s heart. As Scott’s book surmised, the film was “entirely the child of its creator,” who would at last have his evil Barnabas. And at a glance, it is an American riff on what had already become kitsch by 1970 thanks to Hammer Film Productions’ seemingly endless line of Dracula movies, plus the knockoffs.

And to be sure, House of Dark Shadows is in many ways a Dracula movie. It’s also insight into how Curtis originally viewed the Barnabas character before Frid went on a charm offensive. Playing almost like a CliffNotes version of Barnabas’ first several storylines on the show, the vampire is awakened during the film’s opening moments because of the foolishness of groundskeeper Willie Loomis (John Karlen). Barnabas then forces poor old Willie to become his living slave and creates a fictitious narrative about being a distant cousin descended from the original Barnabas Collins, whom family lore claims sailed away to London in 1795, never to be heard from again.

Bringing back the “original” Barnabas’ family jewels to ingratiate himself, the Barnabas of 1970 is free to attend family gatherings, fix up an old ruined house on the estate, and even feed on cousin Carolyn (Nancy Barrett), a dear relative who becomes a dead ringer for Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker’s famed novel. Even so, Carolyn cannot displace Maggie (still Scott) in Barnabas’ eyes, who he is sure is the reincarnation of Josette.

It very much has the narrative beats of a traditional vampire movie, but the charm that lingers a half-century later comes in part from seeing these actors, who are intimately familiar with their characters, going through the paces with better production values. That quality also manifests in Curtis’ sense of atmosphere, now liberated from the stage-bound quality of daytime drawing room drama. I would even argue House of Dark Shadows is one of the more satisfyingly atmospheric vampire movies to come out of the 1970s.

Curtis filmed in the upstate New York’s Tarrytown area, mostly on the actual Gothic Lyndhurst Estate, built in the 1830s, and shot much of the exteriors in the legendary Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Whereas Hammer films tended to rely increasingly on sets during this period, and most B horror movies had no budget for evocative locations, House of Dark Shadows was filming its sequences in between tours of the Lyndhurst Mansion and in the same atmospheric cemetery that helped birth the myth of a Headless Horseman.

Regarding the filming location, screenwriter Sam Hall remarked, “It’s a wild house. I’d hate like hell to live in it.”

This is only accentuated by the fact Curtis knows how to drain a spooky location dry. Images like vampire Carolyn standing in a window, draped in white, beckoning her lover to become one of the damned is a better use of Lucy iconography than any Dracula movie made before House of Dark Shadows. And the film’s ending sequence reaches an operatic opulence rarely seen, even in vampire cheapies. Barnabas, bathed in a blue light and shrouded in inexplicable fog in the interior of his decrepit home, beckons Maggie, now in a wedding dress, toward him as the famous melody of Josette’s music box twinkles, only now in a weeping minor key.

The corruption of that wistful melody is intriguing. An original part of the Dark Shadows television series, Josette’s music box, and Frid’s soliloquies about it, is what first gave Barnabas his soul, distinguishing him from the general depravity of other pop culture vampires. One could even say Barnabas is the first significantly sympathetic male vampire in fiction. In House of Dark Shadows, he has a more sinister mean streak, but the pathos remains.

Hence why the film plays at times like a gonzo delight. It may feature the original, more wicked Barnabas, but it is still derived from the genteel series, and many of those elements carry over. Take Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) spending half the movie trying to cure Barnabas, a subplot that eventually ends happily for the pair on the show, but less so here. It’s soapy pulp, yet it’s given as much stone-faced gravity as the Collinsport Police Department unquestioningly agreeing to patrol around town with standard issue police crucifixes. One might ask if they keep silver bullets in every squad car too?

The overall effect is bizarre, but endearingly so. It’s also fairly influential, as confirmed by what happened after Dan Curtis dropped Barnabas in favor of another vampire.

Dark Shadows’ Witch Was As Influential As Its Vampire

By Tony Sokol

Movies

Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Seduction of Old School Movie Magic

By David Crow

In 1974, following Dark Shadows’ cancellation, Curtis wrote and directed a Dracula TV movie for CBS that within its opening titles billed itself as “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Far removed from Stoker’s novel, the little remembered television film nonetheless starred Jack Palance as the vampire, and introduced several significant elements to the story by overtly making Dracula an undead version of historical figure Vlad the Impaler (which he is not in the novel) and turning Lucy into the reincarnation of his great lost love.

Curtis was in essence trying to recast Dracula as Barnabas Collins. Like House of Dark Shadows, Curtis even sought to build a Gothic atmosphere by filming in real locations, albeit now Eastern Europe. The result was effective in those scenes, even if the rest of the movie failed in no small part because Palance could never wear the tragic cloak so well as Frid.

In spite of its shortcomings, many have fairly speculated on whether Curtis’ Dracula influenced James V. Hart, the screenwriter of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Hart was certainly more successful at turning Dracula into a lovelorn prince, and Coppola made that idea permanent in the pop culture imagination. Yet, at the end of the day, they were still remaking the pop culture image of Dracula so as to be closer in line with Barnabas Collins, instead of the other way around.

I would even argue that Coppola’s film is closer in tone with Dark Shadows, at least in its romantic moments, than Tim Burton’s big budget Dark Shadows movie was in 2012. Burton of course attempted to avoid some of the mistakes of House of Dark Shadows, namely by keeping Barnabas as the good guy who is trying to save his family instead of ultimately destroying them, as well as retaining the other fan favorite character, the witchy Angelique (who like all other non-vampire elements was omitted from House of Dark Shadows). But Burton also played her and the whole concept as pure camp, making the Collins’ a subject of ridicule, and their problems a punchline.

Admittedly, there is something faintly camp about the 1960s daytime series and its ‘70s drive-in remake; plots turn on ludicrous developments like Julia falling in love with Barnabas, and then intentionally sabotaging his vampire cure when she realizes he loves a younger woman. But they were sold with absolute sincerity, and in the case of Frid, a palatable conviction.

House of Dark Shadows continues that conviction, no matter how batshit things become. Thus the ending where, accepting he’ll never be cured, Barnabas transforms family patriarch Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds) and even the film’s version of Van Helsing (Thayer David) into vampires. And we get to a finale so madcap that it turns “Renfield” into the last remaining hero. Madness, indeed.

Ironically, House of Dark Shadows was blamed by some for the eventual death of the series. Every character in the film, including Barnabas, had to be written out of the show, for some weeks at a time, so the actors could go shoot a movie upstate (another reason Angelique and other significant characters were left out). This correlated with some of the series’ weaker storylines that lost audiences’ attention.

Additionally, it’s believed parents who went with their children to see the movie in October 1970 were appalled by the amount of blood and sensual subtext in the film. As a result, some may have forbidden their kids from watching the series further… with the show getting cancelled in April 1971.

“The TV ratings fell after the movie,” Scott’s The Dark Shadows Companion revealed. “It has been suggested by some that House of Dark Shadows led to the series’ eventual demise. Perhaps it was the audience’s reaction to seeing their hero Barnabas in an evil light. Perhaps it was because parents attended House of Dark Shadows with their children and, seeing the amount of blood spilled across the screen, discouraged their children’s choice of television viewing material.”

Star Frid was even more unsparing in his final analysis.

“[The film] lacked the charm and naivete of the soap opera,” Frid said. “Every once in a while the show coalesced into a Brigadoonish never-never-land. It wasn’t necessary to bring the rest of the world into Dark Shadows, which is what the film did.”

Nevertheless, both the series and movie left a few marks on the throat of pop culture. The series certainly paved the way for more multidimensional portraits of vampires to be explored, opening the door for, yes, the Coppola Dracula movie, but also Anne Rice and True Blood. In fact, even if House of Dark Shadows might’ve been considered too brutal by parents in 1970, decades of pop culture refinement would find a way to make the sympathetic vampire archetype much more tolerable when instead of drinking from his cousin, he sparkled in the daylight and told his prey they needed to wait until marriage.

Without Barnabas, his series, and his slice of bananas role is House of Dark Shadows, we may never have gotten Lestat, Edward Cullen, or Gary Oldman’s Dracula. At least not as how we know them. Fifty years on, that’s a bloody good legacy for a daytime drama and a B-movie you’ve never seen.

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epicstuckyficrecs · 5 years

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Weekly recap | July 29th-August 4th

Here’s what I read in the last week! 💙

You can find my other Weekly Recaps here!

Complete

This Has Already Happened by Mollyamory (Molly), Speranza/ @cesperanza (canon divergence | 8K | Not rated): "There are absolutely no circumstances in which I give the Time Stone to you," the Wizard gasps. "None. Nada. Zip. Choke on that, you sonofabitch."

Not Broken, Just Bent by amethystkrystal/ @amethystkrystal, goodmanperfectsoldier (ABO AU | 3K | Teen): Steve teaches a prenatal yoga class, and though he has a soft spot for all his students, he can't help being especially drawn to Bucky Barnes, the soft-spoken — and unmated — omega who just joined the studio.

💙 Ill With Want by thedoubteriswise/ @thedoubteriswise (Pre-war | 27K | Mature): Bucky pretends to be asleep when Steve crawls into bed, too tired to feel guilty over the quivery pleasure that settles in his belly when Steve’s arm brushes his. Bucky doesn’t move him. He drifts to sleep in a comfortable haze and tries not to wonder where this feeling was two hours ago when he had Marie in his lap.

💙 you are the future (series) by greyhavensking/ @greyhavensking (canon divergent, post-Avengers | 6 works, series marked not complete | 33K | Teen): Sweat trickles down from his hairline into his eyes and he irritably swipes it away, a little convinced that the gesture will also serve to wipe away what he’s seeing. But no, that’s definitely a man -- at least judging by the breadth of his shoulders and general body shape -- single-handedly facing off against a trio of enraged aliens.

It's possible that he wants you too by belovedmuerto/ @belovedmuerto (Post-WS | 4K | Teen): “Bucky kissed me this morning,” Steve says, not quite believing the words even as they’re coming out of his mouth. “Wait,” Sam replies. “Back up.”

14-Inch Cock and a Few Hundred Bimbos by verzacefatale/ @verzacefatale (PWP | 3K | Explicit): There are some things in life, Steve muses as he stares down at his crotch, that nothing can prepare you for. Sure, becoming a super soldier was, at the time, the most wild thing he could think of, and sure, his tolerance for ridiculous, catastrophic and immeasurably weird situations has very much grown since then, but this? His dick suddenly growing six inches in length and another two in girth, just because he opened a box in a Hydra dug out that maybe he should have read the instructions on before he did? How was he to know it was literally magic that would make his cock grow huge?

Hic sunt dracones by stevergrsno (noxlunate)/ @stevergrsno (Medieval Fantasy, Dragon Steve | 5K | Teen): There are stories: Stories of knights and the dragons they slayed. Stories of princes who conquered the great fire-breathing beasts terrorizing their kingdoms. Stories of how they saved their lands and won the hand of fair princesses in battle. This is not one of those stories. At least not in the strictest sense.

To Eat from the Tree by AidaRonan (30′s AU | 6K | Explicit): There is a story they tell in Collinwood, NY. A story of two priests-in-training who fell off the path of righteousness and into each other.

💙 As long as I have a face, you'll always have somewhere to sit by Avaaricious (Modern AU, meet-cute | 5K | Mature): AKA the "My friends bet that I couldn't pick up someone using the worst lines I know, but I actually like you and don't want to screw up" AU

Proud by dixons_mama (TFA | 2K | Teen): While trapped in Azzano, Bucky accidentally confesses to Steve that he loves him. Bucky is sure this will be the end of their friendship.

WIP

Solitary by exclamation/ @jessicameats (Canon divergent | 35/? | 87K | Mature): The Winter Soldier has been a prisoner of SHIELD for about a year and a half, placed in solitary confinement under strict security when it was clear he wasn’t going to respond to the best interrogators and deprogrammers SHIELD had available. When Fury asks a newly awakened Steve Rogers to assist, Steve is hesitant. He doesn’t understand why Fury thinks he would have a better chance of getting through to this guy than all the people who have tried and failed.

💙 This Side of the Blue by notlucy/ @notlucy (Mermaid AU | 23/44 | 83K | Explicit): Tucked against a set of crumbling, stone steps was a tank made of metal and glass, filled to the brim with greenish water, distorted sunlight filtering through and casting strange shadows. Playing tricks on the eye. A trick was the only explanation for what Steve saw floating there. This figment of his childhood. This myth. This legend. Within the tank, the siren bared its teeth.

💙 Latte Art and Slow Dancing in the Dark by deadonarrival (Modern AU with powers, Daddy kink | 15/20 | 77K | Explicit): Bucky is a somewhat well-adjusted former army sniper that got his shoulder blown out. He took his discharge and went home to finish school and is working on his international relations masters. His best friends and roommates (Nat & Clint) are CIA agents and tip him off that their local Sbux is hiring. He gets a job there and meets none other than the hottest guy on earth. So how does one get a date in the most top secret government location in the US? What happens when that guy is more than just a hot dorito and wants to give Bucky everything he wants? Bucky is going to have to figure out his shit and fast.

💙 Like Real People Do by 2bestfriends (Shrunkyclunks, canon divergent post-Avengers | 31K | 5/10 | Explicit): Seven years into an isolated retirement after the Battle of New York, Steve has carved out a place for himself in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. He has a best friend (his dog, Lady), a frenemy (a local black bear named Rufus), and a cabin in the middle of the woods, an hour’s drive from the nearest town. As November comes to a close, he heads into town to pick up supplies and ends up with a stowaway.

💙 Cakes & Balances by mambo/ @whtaft (POTUS Steve | 14K | 7/? | Teen): It’s kind of hard to date the cute baker from down the street when you’re the President of the United States of America. But Steve Rogers will make it work.

Bucky Barnes and the Embarrassment of Spidermen by AggressiveWhenStartled (Multiverse, Peter-centric(ish) | 4/5 | 15K | Mature): “Peter,” Steve said into the table. “Please tell me you didn’t bring home someone from Tony’s alternate dimension.” “Of course I didn’t,” Peter said, looking indignant. “I wouldn’t do that. I brought him to your place.”

Re-read

💙 All's fair in [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] (series) by redcigar (canon-divergent, post-WS | 3 works, series marked not complete | 10K | Mature): AU wherein Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers never met, Steve somehow manages to rescue the Winter Soldier anyway, and Avengers Tower ends up with the world’s angriest duckling and a whole new brand of entertainment.

💙 honey don't feed it, it will come back by ellebeesknees (umetnica), thedoubteriswise/ @thedoubteriswise (canon compliant, TFA | 18K | Mature): He lets out a long sigh and watches Bucky. Back home he was always too vain to let more than a day’s worth of stubble build up, but now he’s got about three days of scruff on his chin. He shouldn’t look handsome like this. His eyes are shut, but Steve can tell by his breathing that he’s still awake. The cat is curled up on his stomach and purring like an idling motor.

Learning To Say Hello by heartsdesire456/ @heartsdesire456 (Post-WS, Clint POV | 11K | Mature): In which Hawkeye befriends the Winter Soldier and discovers the Epic Love Story of Steve and Bucky nobody knows about)

Howl Home (Shift for Me) by Menatiera/ @menatiera (canon divergent, wolf Steve, Bucky Cap | 13K | Teen): As Captain America, Bucky Barnes rescued a hyper-intelligent wolf from HYDRA during the war. He makes a good fit with the Howling Commandos - and later, with the Avengers.

💙 The Sweetest Spark by deadto27 (Modern AU, age difference | 73K | Explicit): Steve Rogers runs a successful business. He has great friends and a great life. It seems like he has it all. So why is he sitting in a diner on a Friday night alone? Maybe he's just a little lonely. Maybe Bucky Barnes can help with that.

#stucky #stucky fic #stucky fanfic #stucky fanfiction #stucky fic rec #weekly recap

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robkirbycomics · 4 years

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HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS ('70) When Barnabas Collins leaves the small screen he discovers he can inflict a lot more blood & mayhem on the big screen #31horrorfilms31days

NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS ('71) Quentin Collins inherits Collinwood in all its splendor, inhabited by the spirit of Angelique the witch, who only wants him to love her. Obviously Quentin's new wife is not into this situation, no way no how

GERALD’S GAME ('17) Couple's sex-zay weekend becomes much less so when he keels over dead while she's handcuffed to the bed. Surprisingly potent mix of super-squirmy thrills n chills w/ Triumph of the Spirit uplift

BODY BAGS ('93) trio of horror tales features a very early 90s brew of synth-y score, jokey cameos by Wes Craven, et al. & an overall sophomoric vibe. But also good performances + Debbie Harry. Body Bags = mixed bag

HEREDITARY ('18) This very dark blend of ORDINARY PEOPLE with ROSEMARY’S BABY features a wonderfully unhinged performance by Toni Collette and remains a sobering reminder that sometimes it does *not* get better

TRAIN TO BUSAN (’16) Excellent Korean Zombie Apocalypse thriller mixes edge-of-the-seat thrills with involving human drama - with characters you genuinely care about. At the end I was all (crying emojis)

THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN ('14) Harrowing found footage flick: a documentary film crew filming a woman dealing w/ early effects of Alzheimer's disease finds she is afflicted w/ something much worse - something *unholy*. A small gem, I recommend

THE REEF (’10) TFW you realize that the perfect killer shark movie was made nearly 45 years ago. But anyway here's yet another killer shark movie

THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER ('15) Weirdo teen girl & non-weirdo teen girl spend a lonely holiday weekend in an empty all-girl's school where things get super creepy in that arty-slow-burn-fractured-narrative fashion. Honestly, I was riveted

VIY ('67) Loser-y Russian seminary student must spend 3 scary nights praying over a dead witch's body. Only she's not so dead & wants to drag him down to hell with her. During the day he drinks much vodka, who could blame him? Enjoyed this charming folktale

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID ('16) del Toro-esque tale of orphaned street kids on the lam from a vicious drug cartel, alternately haunted & helped by ghostly victims of the cartel. Scary, funny & touching, a fairytale that will give you the feels

ANGST ('83) Psycho creep gets out of jail and wants to kill, proceeds to do so. Best part of this clammy little German film: the totes adorbs little dachshund, even the whackjob seemed to like it with its cute little wagging tail

PONTYPOOL (’07) Radio shockjock has a super bad day at work when a terrible virus breaks out that turns people into murderous zombies - esp when he learns how the virus is transmitted. Def recommend this excellent, downright existential Canadian chiller

HELL HOUSE LLC ('16) A crew of douchebags acquire an old hotel w/ unsavory past to open a Halloween haunted house, only to find themselves stuck in an overlong combination of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT w/ THE BEYOND - never a good place to be

SUSPIRIA ('18) Luca Guadagnino’s radical reimagining of Dario Argento's rococo 1977 masterpiece polarized horror fans: Those Who Damned vs Those Mesmerized. Count me solidly in the latter camp

16. DARLING ('15) Young woman takes housesitting job in huge, elegantly ritzy NYC apt, slowly unravels, eventually does damage w/ a big kitchen knife. All in beautiful B&W

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP ('80) Monstrous mutants arise from the depths to terrorize a fishing village. Turns out they also want to propagate the species, Ew

BUCKET OF BLOOD ('59) Loser schnook works as a busboy in beatnik cafe, then finds success pawning off corpses covered in plaster as ART. This adorbs time capsule amusingly satirizes both beatnik culture & Art World bullshit

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS ('60) This cheap little quickie about a bloodthirsty plant that morphed into an 1982 off-Broadway hit & more is still engaging, w/ fun Borscht belt type humor & game cast, incl Jack Nicholson, genuinely funny as a masochistic dental pt

EATEN ALIVE ('76) Sweaty whackjob owns (A) rundown remote hotel, (B) large scythe, & (C) man-eating crocodile, all leading to (D) bizzaro murderous mayhem. Highlight: the croc (spoiler alert) eats a pre-Freddy Kruger Robert Englund

HOUR OF THE WOLF ('68) Artist & wife settle into life on isolated, windy island, where he inevitably begins to succumb to his inner demons. Ingmar Bergman's lone horror film is filled w/ all kinds of frightening imagery + existential dread. Good times!

THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF (’73) Little Richie: I'm scared, Dad's a werewolf! Let's not go camping with him! Everyone: He is not, you're tired, you had a nightmare, those dead people were killed by a wild animal, go to bed, etc. Repeat for 80 minutes

ONE CUT OF THE DEAD ('19) Japanese item features a low-budget film crew filming a zombie flick. Charming, funny, & way-meta - recommend not reading anything about it B4 watching (after this post, obvs)

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE ('02) A brutal double murder creates a relentless curse in this genuinely creepy Japanese ghost story. It's also one of ol' Rob's faves from the aughts

JENNIFER ('78) TFW the school bullies are being super horrible but then you remember Hey wait I have *supernatural power* over *SNAKES* and I could totally use that to my advantage! (hint: she totally does)

THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE ('16) Father & son coroners perform an autopsy on a mysterious corpse & must soon deal with several standard supernatural tropes including jump scares

HAGGAZUSSA ('17) Portrait of a woman branded as a witch, living in isolation outside a remote village, slowly losing her grip. Not a fun or action-packed watch, but if ur willing to meet it halfway, this German film might both mesmerize & horrify you.

IN THE TALL GRASS (’19) People get lost in an ominous field of grass that apparently stretches out waaay further than you'd ever think possible, not unlike the runtime of this movie

THE NIGHTSHIFTER (’18) In this clever Brazilian gem, guy working in a morgue learns the hard way that when the dead impart information, what they tell you should stay *strictly* confidential

MANDY (’18) Nicolas Cage dials it up way past over-the-top avenging himself on an evil cult & demon bikers in this flamboyantly campy, blood-soaked, LSD-infused revenge tale. Me = shaking my head, utterly hypnotized throughout

CANDYMAN (’93) Candyman Candyman Candyman Candyman (...)

INHUMAN KISS ('19) Young lovers must contend w/ the fact that her head detaches from her body every night to feed upon flesh in this romantic, wildly over-the-top dark fantasy from Thailand. Lovely way to wrap up this yr's #31horrorfilms31days extravaganza

#31horrorfilms31days #dark shadows #j-horror #tobe hooper #clive barker #ingmar bergman #stephen king #Horror Movies

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notyourdeadgirlfriend-a · 5 years

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//Questions for Muns of Canon Muses - 1, 4, 5, and 13

questions for muns of canon muses

1. what is the biggest headcanon deviation from the canon material that you have incorporated into the way you write your muse? why did you come up with it?

that maggie succeeds in killing barnabas is definitely my biggest change. tbh, i didn’t come up with this idea on my own (i was literally inspired to make this blog by this post) but i was immediately taken by the concept. maggie has always been one of my favorite characters, and it kills me how poorly her character was treated by the show after her kidnapping plot was resolved.

now, i understand why the writers never killed off barnabas, and i acknowledge his importance both as a character and as the stroke of genius that saved the show from cancellation. but as a viewer, it’s maddening that maggie never got the justice she deserved. she’s had her memory of her kidnapping erased twice over the course of the show (which, again, i understand the choice despite not agreeing with it), but then after vicki leaves the show, she’s brought in as the replacement governess – a plot development that makes no sense and leaves the character with a drastically altered personality, as it’s clear that her role now is simply to fill in for vicki. but the greatest insult to injury is that from this point forward, the writers attempt to make barnabas/maggie a thing – again, completely disregarding her original characterization in favor of reducing her to vicki’s role, which had already been greatly diminished since the show moved from a jane eyre-esque gothic to an all-out spook show. after her flashback and subsequent second memory wipe, no mention is made of barnabas’ victimization of maggie ever again. it’s literally swept under the rug and forgotten about, even when maggie falls victim to another vampire.

tldr; maggie evans is an amazing character who deserved so much better, and my canon divergent blog is my attempt of sorts to redeem her later characterization and play her out as the badass that she is.

4. have you made any outright changes to the canon material in order to write your muse the way you wanted (entire scenes you chose to omit, chapters you say never existed, things you assume were never said, etc.)?

again, maggie killing barnabas is something that never happened in canon, but vampire slayer maggie evans is just too good of a concept to pass up. even the audios from big finish realized this – in bloodlust, maggie finally gets to stake somebody! it’s too bad that she’s still way too forgiving of barnabas, even though she remembers everything he’s done to her at this point. her hatred of barnabas is something i keep across all of my verses, up to and including my canon (when she regains her memory) and audio verses.

besides that, i can’t really think of many concrete examples on the spot, although i’m sure there’s other instances. as somebody else in the fandom once put it, dark shadows canon is like a choose your own adventure book. even canon contradicts itself (many, many times) and the show has several storylines taking place in actual parallel universes, so canon is honestly irrelevant as far as i’m concerned. i pick and choose what i like and leave out the rest.

5. what is an aspect of your muse’s canon material or canon existence that you never had the opportunity to explore but really want to?

maggie’s stints at windcliff sanitarium. she was committed there twice, once after the kidnapping, and the other after being attacked by the vampire roxanne drew. i feel that i don’t talk about it enough, and i’d love the opportunity to explore that part of her backstory. also, i really want to delve into her childhood – between her mother’s death and her father’s alcoholism, she dealt with a lot in her formative years. the audiobook clothes of sand goes into both of these aspects, and chronicles her first supernatural experiences with a character called “the sandman” – the memories of whom she has largely suppressed, but who has had a significant impact on her psyche nonetheless.

13. what canon character do you really wish your muse could interact more with?

WILLIE LOOMIS, hands down. he and maggie have such an interesting and tragic dynamic, and he’s the only one who can truly understand what she’s gone through (and vice versa). between the two of them, they share so much trauma. like maggie, willie’s also been screwed over by canon, although not to the same extent, and i’d love to write some threads in which they work through their trauma together.

besides willie, i’d also love to have maggie interact with angelique, carolyn, vicki, david, roger, amy jennings, julia hoffman, nicholas blair, tony peterson, any of the collinwood ghosts (josette, sarah, beth, rachel, daphne, jenny, trask), any of the characters from the audio series (especially kate ripperton, melody and mike devereux, jackie and rhonda tate, ed griffin) – as you can probably tell, i’d be thrilled to interact with ANY dark shadows character. but given how tiny this fandom is, i feel blessed just to have a quentin and now a barnabas!!

#[ // thank you so much for these!!! ]#multiplechoicepast #[ ♰ LEAVE A MESSAGE | 𝔞𝔫𝔰𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔢𝔡 ]#[ ♰ DEFIES CATEGORY | 𝔪𝔦𝔰𝔠. ]#[ // uses this ask as a shameless excuse to ramble about my favorite hellshow ]

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