Dark Shadows: 1991 Revival
Having recently purchased the 1991 Revival miniseries on DVD, I tried to stretch the 12 episodes out as long as I could. I finished watching last night, and thought I'd post my impressions.
Three "S" words immediately spring to mind: Slick, streamlined, sexed-up. They pretty much describe the Dark Shadows remake. Using the 1970 film House of Dark Shadows as a starting point, many of its plot elements were incorporated to create a new vision of the original series' storylines featuring the arrival of Victoria Winters, and Barnabas Collins being unleashed from his coffin. I would not be a bit surprised if the forthcoming Johnny Depp film follows this example.
Anyway, what frustrates me most is the fact that NBC really had something special here. The movie-length premiere was met with phenomenal ratings, but ultimately coverage of the Gulf War suffocated the following episodes. Without giving it a chance to recover, NBC stupidly axed the mini-series after 12 shows. Now I do believe if Sci-Fi Channel or something similar had been around, then they would more than likely had picked it up and continued it. It's a real shame.
There were a few aspects of the production I didn't care for. Barbara Blackburn's interpretation of Carolyn, for example, is one of them. She's a little too slutty for my taste. Then there's Lysette Anthony's Angelique, who comes across as sleazy instead of the powerful scorned witch brilliantly played by Lara Parker. Because the plot focuses so heavily on Barnabas, we really never get to know some of the other characters like Elizabeth or Roger in the same way as the original series. But these are minor quibbles in an otherwise superb production.
No one will ever come close to capturing Jonathan Frid's portrayal of tortured vampire Barnabas (and it should be noted, the first of his kind) but Ben Cross is wonderful. He manages to bring across the helplessness he feels when his vampiric instincts kick in, along with his desire to be reunited with his lost love Josette.
In an interesting twist, Josette has been reincarnated as Victoria. I actually prefer this to the original in which it was Maggie who was Josette's double, not Victoria. Many times it was hinted at there being a connection between Victoria and Josette, but nothing ever came of this until the 1991 series. Joanna Going plays the dual roles beautifully.
The casting of horror veteran Barbara Steele as Dr. Julia Hoffman was inspired. She has a hint of the eccentricity that made the late, great Grayson Hall so superb in the role to begin with. My fear with the Johnny Deep movie is that some young, pretty thing will be cast in this pivotal part. This happened in the unaired 2004 WB pilot for a possible new Dark Shadows series, which totally misses the point of the character. Julia is a spinster who has devoted her entire life to science, only to fall into unrequited love with the vampire. I'll get down off my soapbox about that.
The rest of the cast is inspired: particularly Jean Simmons as Elizabeth, Roy Thinnes as Roger, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as David.
Surprisingly, 5 episodes into the series and the first time travel story is remade. During a seance, Victoria is transported back to 1790 in which she witnesses the tragic events that led to Barnabas being cursed. At the same time, these sequences are intercut with the happenings at Collinwood during the present day. One notable change here is that most of the 1790 Collins Family is on Victoria's side when she is wrongfully accused of the witchcraft caused by Angelique. In the original, she had very few allies apart from wishy-washy jailer Peter Bradford (my least-favorite character in all of Dark Shadows).
Roy Thinnes hams up the role of fanatical witchhunter Reverend Trask, with camp bushy eyebrows to boot. The character's still a bastard, but far from the out-and-out scary bastard that made Jerry Lacy so memorable.
Because of the breakneck pace of the episodes, there really isn't enough time to develop certain plot points so integral to the original properly. I still have no idea why they wasted time on Angelique bewitching Ben as her servant when she never really used him for anything. And her death at Barnabas' hand, along with the curse she places on him, is nowhere near as powerful as in the original.
However, the rest of it plays out brilliantly. The death of Barnabas' sister Sarah is genuinely touching, and the execution of Victoria is nail-biting stuff. As she is transported back to 1991 due to a quirk of time, the series ends on a cliffhanger: Victoria now knows that Barnabas is a vampire.
I would have LOVED to have seen what direction a second series would have taken. Plans were sketchy at the time, but I know they were throwing around ideas of remaking the Quentin storyline with Adrian Paul in the role. There were a few references to Laura, so I wonder if she might have returned. Then, there's the fact that Maggie was still possessed by Angelique's spirit...
Aargh! It's frustrating to think of what might have been.
The DVD set is very worthwhile if you can get your hands on it. The episodes have been mastered in widescreen, and my only disappointment was over the fact the expanded VHS editions of Episodes 1 and 12 were not utilized.
Three "S" words immediately spring to mind: Slick, streamlined, sexed-up. They pretty much describe the Dark Shadows remake. Using the 1970 film House of Dark Shadows as a starting point, many of its plot elements were incorporated to create a new vision of the original series' storylines featuring the arrival of Victoria Winters, and Barnabas Collins being unleashed from his coffin. I would not be a bit surprised if the forthcoming Johnny Depp film follows this example.
Anyway, what frustrates me most is the fact that NBC really had something special here. The movie-length premiere was met with phenomenal ratings, but ultimately coverage of the Gulf War suffocated the following episodes. Without giving it a chance to recover, NBC stupidly axed the mini-series after 12 shows. Now I do believe if Sci-Fi Channel or something similar had been around, then they would more than likely had picked it up and continued it. It's a real shame.
There were a few aspects of the production I didn't care for. Barbara Blackburn's interpretation of Carolyn, for example, is one of them. She's a little too slutty for my taste. Then there's Lysette Anthony's Angelique, who comes across as sleazy instead of the powerful scorned witch brilliantly played by Lara Parker. Because the plot focuses so heavily on Barnabas, we really never get to know some of the other characters like Elizabeth or Roger in the same way as the original series. But these are minor quibbles in an otherwise superb production.
No one will ever come close to capturing Jonathan Frid's portrayal of tortured vampire Barnabas (and it should be noted, the first of his kind) but Ben Cross is wonderful. He manages to bring across the helplessness he feels when his vampiric instincts kick in, along with his desire to be reunited with his lost love Josette.
In an interesting twist, Josette has been reincarnated as Victoria. I actually prefer this to the original in which it was Maggie who was Josette's double, not Victoria. Many times it was hinted at there being a connection between Victoria and Josette, but nothing ever came of this until the 1991 series. Joanna Going plays the dual roles beautifully.
The casting of horror veteran Barbara Steele as Dr. Julia Hoffman was inspired. She has a hint of the eccentricity that made the late, great Grayson Hall so superb in the role to begin with. My fear with the Johnny Deep movie is that some young, pretty thing will be cast in this pivotal part. This happened in the unaired 2004 WB pilot for a possible new Dark Shadows series, which totally misses the point of the character. Julia is a spinster who has devoted her entire life to science, only to fall into unrequited love with the vampire. I'll get down off my soapbox about that.
The rest of the cast is inspired: particularly Jean Simmons as Elizabeth, Roy Thinnes as Roger, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as David.
Surprisingly, 5 episodes into the series and the first time travel story is remade. During a seance, Victoria is transported back to 1790 in which she witnesses the tragic events that led to Barnabas being cursed. At the same time, these sequences are intercut with the happenings at Collinwood during the present day. One notable change here is that most of the 1790 Collins Family is on Victoria's side when she is wrongfully accused of the witchcraft caused by Angelique. In the original, she had very few allies apart from wishy-washy jailer Peter Bradford (my least-favorite character in all of Dark Shadows).
Roy Thinnes hams up the role of fanatical witchhunter Reverend Trask, with camp bushy eyebrows to boot. The character's still a bastard, but far from the out-and-out scary bastard that made Jerry Lacy so memorable.
Because of the breakneck pace of the episodes, there really isn't enough time to develop certain plot points so integral to the original properly. I still have no idea why they wasted time on Angelique bewitching Ben as her servant when she never really used him for anything. And her death at Barnabas' hand, along with the curse she places on him, is nowhere near as powerful as in the original.
However, the rest of it plays out brilliantly. The death of Barnabas' sister Sarah is genuinely touching, and the execution of Victoria is nail-biting stuff. As she is transported back to 1991 due to a quirk of time, the series ends on a cliffhanger: Victoria now knows that Barnabas is a vampire.
I would have LOVED to have seen what direction a second series would have taken. Plans were sketchy at the time, but I know they were throwing around ideas of remaking the Quentin storyline with Adrian Paul in the role. There were a few references to Laura, so I wonder if she might have returned. Then, there's the fact that Maggie was still possessed by Angelique's spirit...
Aargh! It's frustrating to think of what might have been.
The DVD set is very worthwhile if you can get your hands on it. The episodes have been mastered in widescreen, and my only disappointment was over the fact the expanded VHS editions of Episodes 1 and 12 were not utilized.