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Showing posts with label House of Dark Shadows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House of Dark Shadows. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

See House, Night of Dark Shadows on Movies! in July



Whoops! That's what I get for not checking the rest of the Movies! schedule. As it happens, both House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows are airing on Movies! in July.  Here's the revised schedule. The times are EST.

July 3
1:30 p.m., House of Dark Shadows
3:45 p.m. Night of Dark Shadows

July 12
12 p.m., House of Dark Shadows
2:15 p.m. Night of Dark Shadows
July 14
4:40 p.m. 1776
8 p.m., House of Dark Shadows

July 15
8 p.m. Night of Dark Shadows
July 20
8:35 a.m., House of Dark Shadows
10:50 a.m. Night of Dark Shadows


Original, erroneous story follows ...

Night of Dark Shadows, everybody's second favorite Dark Shadows movie, is set to air four times next month on Movies! TV Network. Why July? Who knows! It's usually a month reserved for films as far flung as 1776 to Rocky IV, and Night of Dark Shadows screams a lot of things but "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave" isn't one of them.

Speaking of 1776, exactly when does NoDS take place? The movie poster claims the flashback scenes happen 200 years ago, meaning 1771. Other summaries state 150 years ago, landing us on 1821. But the screenplay says Angelique died in 1810 ... which is a dud year in American history. The big news of 1810 was that the United States annexed West Florida shortly after it declared independence from Spain. In fact, it would be another decade before Maine, the location of all things Dark Shadows, would even become a state. That's one to grow on.

I've included 1776 in the schedule because I consider it to be an honorary Dark Shadows movie, thanks to the shows many cast members appearing in the film.

If you want to watch Night of Dark Shadows on Movies!, here's when it airs:

For more details, visit https://moviestvnetwork.com/movies/1765, and make sure to follow Will McKinley on Twitter. He's the guy who tipped me to this.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

A tale of two Dark Shadows posters



One of the highlights of my year was being asked to design the poster for Dark Shadows: Behind the Screams, one of the events at the annual Sleepy Hollow International Film Festival. I wasn't abel to attend the event, which sucked ... but I'm deeply honored to have been asked to participate and hope to make the pilgrimage next year.

The poster you saw wasn't my first idea, though. At the time I'd been riffing on the great James Bama's 1966 promotional painting for Star Trek, which you can see here. I was having fun with that kind of macho-adventure collage, even applying it to Gregory Walcott's character in Plan 9 from Outer Space, promoting his buffoonish character to a level of heroism he doesn't really deserve. I mention all of this just to illustrate where my head was when the offer arrived from the kind people at Sleepy Hollow.

Here's how the first poster looked, seconds before I scrapped it.



There were two significant problems with this version. Sleepy Hollow's Dark Shadows: Behind the Screams featured a visual retrospective of the classic Dark Shadows television series, a Q&A with cast member Kathryn Leigh Scott, as well as a screening of 1970's House of Dark Shadows" Scott appears in both versions of the poster, but there remained a significant problem with the first draft. House of Dark Shadows was shot in Sleepy Hollow and nearby Tarrytown, which needed to feature predominantly in the marketing. I considered a version of this poster with the Lyndhurst Estate (the mansion that served as Collinwood in "House") in place of Seaview Terrace (Collinwood from the television series) but the overall concept of this poster was so inextricably tied to the second year of the series that it no longer made sense. Below is my second effort, and the poster that was ultimately used in the marketing. I'm very happy with how both of them turned out.

Prints of both posters are available from HereticTees Studios HERE.



Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Podcast: Return to House of Dark Shadows



Will McKinley loves House of Dark Shadows. As a high school student, working for actor Jonathan Frid nights and weekends on a series of one-man shows that had originated at fan conventions, the 1970 feature film was his gateway into the world of Dark Shadows.

Nancy Kersey, a creative collaborator with Frid in those days, does not love House of Dark Shadows, a film she believes does a disservice to the television series. On Oct. 19 they made a pilgrimage to Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, New York — the film's shooting location — to debate the merits of the big screen version of Barnabas Collins. Listen to it here!



They also snapped a few photos during their tour, which you can see below.


Friday, October 11, 2019

See House of Dark Shadows on the big screen tomorrow!


The first annual Sleepy Hollow International Film Festival is hosting a special screening of House of Dark Shadows Oct. 12 (that's tomorrow!) as part of its Dark Shadows: Behind the Screams event. Set to begin 1 p.m. at Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, the screening will be attended by Jim Pierson, longtime curator of the franchise and producer of the documentary Master of Dark Shadows, Kathryn Leigh Scott, who starred in the original ABC series and House of Dark Shadows, and Mary O'Leary, who managed late Dark Shadows star Jonathan Frid and produced his one-man shows. Pierson will dig deep into the private archives of Dan Curtis Productions to present a never-before-seen look at the filming of the television series and original feature films, both of which were shot on location at Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown. You can read more about it HERE.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to design the poster for Dark Shadows: Behind the Screams. I think they'll have prints of it available at the event, but if you can't attend you can purchase a print in a variety of sizes directly from me. There are canvas, photographic and art board prints available, plus a few other odds and ends. You can order online from my Redbubble store at https://www.redbubble.com/people/heretictees/works/41647817-house-of-dark-shadows.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Dark Shadows: Behind the Screams



The first annual Sleepy Hollow International Film Festival is hosting a special screening of House of Dark Shadows Oct. 12 as part of its Dark Shadows: Behind the Screams event. Set to begin 1 p.m. at Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, the screening will be attended by Jim Pierson, longtime curator of the franchise and producer of the documentary Master of Dark Shadows, Kathryn Leigh Scott, who starred in the original ABC series and House of Dark Shadows, and Mary O'Leary, who managed late Dark Shadows star Jonathan Frid and produced his one-man shows. Pierson will dig deep into the private archives of Dan Curtis Productions to present a never-before-seen look at the filming of the television series and original feature films, both of which were shot on location at Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown.

Tickets will be available beginning Sept. 20 at www.TarrytownMusicHall.org.

Below is the poster for Dark Shadows: Behind the Screams ... designed by me! Hope you like it! It's a shame I won't be able to attend the screening, so you're just going to have to share lots of photos in  my absence. Tag me on Twitter at @CousinBarnabas ... and keep your eyes peeled for a special announcement at Behind the Screams. Something big is coming!

Friday, July 26, 2019

Dark Shadows returns to Sleepy Hollow ...



This year is the 200th anniversary of Washington Irving’s classic American ghost story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." In October, the Sleepy Hollow Film Festival will be celebrating the story's artistic legacy ... and they'll be doing it in a big, big way.

SHIFF has so many activities planed for the weekend of Oct. 10-13 that I'm not even going to attempt to summarize them all here. (You can sort through the details at the festival's official website, sleepyhollowfilmfest.com.) It's worth noting that Dana Gould is bringing his live Plan 9 from Outer Space show (and Bob Goldthwait!) to the festival, but there will also be a showcase for Dark Shadows that weekend. Both House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows were shot in Tarrytown, New York, and the nearby Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and the Dark Shadows Festival frequently set up shop in Tarrytown over the years.

To celebrate Collinsport's connection to the Washington Irving tale, Jim Pierson, longtime curator of the franchise and producer of the documentary Master of Dark Shadows (and other guests to be announced) dig deep into the private archives of Dan Curtis Productions to present a never-before-seen look behind the House and Night.

Stay tuned for more details about SHFF's A Salute to Dark Shadows event.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Inappropriate Gold Key movie adaptions



First off, House of Dark Shadows is not a movie for kids. There were probably a lot of legal reasons Gold Key never folded a comic book adaption of the film into their ongoing Dark Shadows series, but face it ... that movie was one faked suicide away from getting slammed with an R rating.

But hey! I don't recognize the authority of the Motion Picture Association of America or the Comics Code, so I can do whatever I want. So I mocked up a cover of what Gold Key's adaption for House of Dark Shadows might have looked like. From there, the idea evolved into increasingly darker directions ... my instinct was to arrange these covers in order of inappropriateness, but that was more difficult than it looks. So here they are. Click on them to see larger images.

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Come see the other way the vampires do it



I don't love much of the artwork that has accompanied the home video releases of House of Dark Shadows over the years. Going back to the days of VHS, the movie has always been given staid, lackluster packaging that feels almost designed to be invisible. I'd be stunned if the designers creating these boring, butt-ugly packages had even seen the movie.

Ugh.
So, I decided to make my own ... back in 2016. My first idea was to use some of the grindhouse-style artwork produced for the movie's bonkers 1970 marketing blitz, but I was distracted by something shiny and never finished it. Last week I returned to the idea and started from scratch, keeping two goals in mind. First, there needed to be a sense of joy to the artwork. House of Dark Shadows is about as pure a horror movie as you're ever going to find, and that needs to be celebrated. I also didn't want to hide the movie's age. New movies are being made every day, but they're not making any more movies from 1970 ... using a bullshit Photoshop collage to give a movie a superficial facelift is gross and embarassing. I'm looking in your direction, Star Wars.

The first design is a tribute to the classic cover stories about Dark Shadows from Famous Monsters of Filmland. I used the color scheme of the magazine's feature about House of Dark Shadows, while also trying to invoke the mighty Basil Gogos. The second design is a more traditional Criterion Collection riff, one that relies heavily on Nancy Barrett (just as movie's original marketing campaign did) while reminding people that House of Dark Shadows is a goddamn brutal movie.

But what to do with this art? My first idea was a bad one, but well intentioned. I've seen enough of my work show up on t-shirts and other websites to make me cautious about sharing high-resolution files. Posting them online almost gaurantees that the images would sooner or later make their way to Redbubble. My solution? "Pay for the shipping and the cost of printing and I'll mail you the covers!" Easy, right? But the messages I received asking for prints immediately got to the point where I felt uncomfortable about the volume of financial transations involved. I also didn't want to spend the rest of the month waiting in line at the post office. Realizing I'm an anarchist at heart (and a lazy one, at that) it felt best just to release these images into the wild and let you good people take care of the rest. All I ask is that, should you print and use these covers, please send me a photo when you're done. I'd love to see people actually using these things!

You can download high-resolution images below from Imgur. There are two versions of each: one for DVD, the other for Blu-ray. If you don't already own House of Dark Shadows on home video ... well, you bring shame upon your family. But you can restore that honor by picking up a copy at Amazon HERE.

BLU 

DVD 

BLU 

 DVD

Monday, March 4, 2019

Spooks haunt Tarrytown estate, 1970


The Collinsport Historical Society's new Facebook group The Drawing Room has really been a boon. Lots of readers have helped point the way toward trivia and newspaper clippings, so much so that I'm rushing just to keep up with them. This one comes courtesy of  reader J.R. Nichols, who is as much a clipping junkie as I am. It's an early newspaper account about the making of House of Dark Shadows, at this point still just titled "Dark Shadows." It's interesting for a number of reasons: It includes a rare photo of Kathryn Leigh Scott and Donald Briscoe on location, and it makes mention of many of the behind-the-scenes crew of the film. You can read a transcript of the story below.

Spooks haunt movie making on Tarrytown estate
By Blanche Feldstein
The Journal News (White Plains, New York)
April 4, 1970

If Washington Irving's ghost is wandering around Tarrytown, these days, he will be surprised to find at Lyndhurst some spooks who never haunted his tales of Sleepy Hollow.

Kathryn Leigh Scott and Donald Briscoe look over the script
 for "House of Dark Shadows" on location at Tarrytown, N.Y.
The vampires and ghouls occupying the imposing former Gould estate are part of a large cast and crew who are filming "Dark Shadows," MGM's new film based on the afternoon TV soap opera. Tarrytown is accommodating itself to the influx of celebrities, having already hosted two other films. "Lovers and Other Strangers," a Hollywood production, was shot at the Hilton Inn last fall, and the "Ceremony of innocence," an off-Broadway play for TV, used the Axe Castle as a set.

Lyndhurst, the charming gothic mansion, used as a country home by the Duchess of Talleyrand-Perigard, has taken on the eerie qualities of the movie plot. The gelled windows reflect the grim tale of lust and love played out by vampire Barnabas and those he gets his teeth into. The actors and actresses including Jonathan Frid, who plays Barnabas, and Joan Bennett, who is the elegant Elizabeth Stoddard Collins, in the movie, are imported daily by limousine from New York City.

Monday's bright sunlight after Easter Sunday's surprise snow kept the vampire Barnabas from appearing on the set. But Miss Bennett arrived late and told of the traffic problems which made the usual one-half hour commute to Lyndhurst into an hour and a half. The snow, wrong for the fall setting of the film, forced director Dan Curtis to call an unscheduled indoor rehearsal.

The stars, actors, sound crew, lighting crew, equipment and props moved into the mansion where the priceless collection of furniture, ''objects" and Tiffany glass will lend authenticity to the incredible story. As on the soap opera, the actors play the scenes straight, vampires and victims take their roles seriously.

Making a movie is grueling business. Director Curtis shouts to an actor, "If you don't step in, the whole scene will lay like a lox," as the scene is hot for the 25th time in a half-hour. Kathryn Leigh Scott, seductive young romantic lead who as Maggie Evans captures the vampire's affection, gets kissed about 300 times in one hour by Roger Davis, tall, blond and handsome, who plays Jeff Clark.

Kiss of Passion 
Each time, the kiss must portray passion, concern and tenderness. The director shouts for quiet in the hall. Filled with workers, photographers, makeup men who rush in every other minute to fix Kathryn's hair and powder her nose sound effects men and miscellaneous Lyndhurst personnel, total quiet is not easily accomplished.

Everyone tries, however, and stands frozen from the few minutes the shot is being taken. The actors and actresses with seeming infinite patience get new directions and start the scene all over again, until the director is finally satisfied.

Nancy Barrett, a wispy young actress with long blond hair, who plays Carolyn Stoddard, one of the vampire's victims, has the bad luck to become a vampire herself. Even as a vampire, her lot is not happy. After biting a few people, she is killed by a stake driven through her heart.

Last week, the scene where Carolyn tries to kill David Collins, is played by 14-year old David Henesy, was shot for three long hours in the freezing temperature and decaying atmosphere of what used to be the Lyndhurst swimming pool building. Offering a perfect setting for a murder, the gigantic former pool is surrounded by large pillars, partially eaten away by mold. The debris, mud and ice on the floor is caused by the leaking roof.

Shivers in Shroud 
Dressed only in a shroud over a body stocking, Nancy emerged shivering from the building and spoke of her role which she has played for four years on the soap opera. Biting has become a habit with her she explained and she finds no difficulty playing a vampire. Hot coffee was being sued on the grounds, but Nancy was afraid to have some since the only rest room was over a mile away from the pool building.

Bob Laden is the makeup man for the show. "Have blood, will travel," he says as he dashes around fixing faces and wounds with the proper gore. He also carries vampire bites, vampire teeth and lots of false eyelashes. Prop man is Michael Maloney, who weaves spider webs out of glue and creates fog out of carbon dioxide. He also has a wind machine to get the eerie effect' of the capes blowing in the wind.

Make believe Is very much in the mind of young Henesy, especially since the story calls for his being hanged. "Is that my hanging closet?" he asked the workmen as they carried a large wooden box gingerly through the front hall of the mansion. David explained that he really gets hung on a harness attached to a canvas vest he wears. "It's all fake," he says, "there's no way I can be hurt."

Never be the Same 
When the actors, directors, photographers, sound men, makeup artists and vampires pack up their gear and leave, will Lyndhurst ever be the same?

Hopefully no, says Gerald Fiedler, director of Lyndhurst. The guides and visitors feel the rooms come alive as they are used as settings for the film. An increase in visitors is excited.

Lori Watson, 20, of Yonkers, who works as a guide says, "Naturally it's much different because of the sets. The garden room is being used as a sheriff's office. People are shocked by the darkness but also are thrilled by being on a set."

Mr. Fiedler has some exciting long-range plans for Lyndhurst which includes creating a theater for stage productions and concerts out of the swimming pool building, restoring the greenhouse, the carriage house and barns and possibly creating a restaurant on the grounds. Although a 515 million project, Mr. Fiedler is optimistic about accomplishing much of the restoration, within the next five years. Meanwhile Tarrytown end Lyndhurst are getting known as a good place to make movies.

Friday, February 22, 2019

Vandalizing the Famous Monsters "Dark Shadows" covers



If you follow the CHS on social media, you might have seen a "remix" yesterday I created of the cover for Famous Monsters of Filmland #82, which showcased House of Dark Shadows. I like the original cover just fine, but always wondered what we might have gotten had Forest J. Ackerman asked Basil Gogos to create the cover rather than the graphic design department. Basil is sadly no longer with us, so I knocked together a colorful homage to his Barnabas Collins cover from issue #59 on Famous Monsters. It wasn't intended as a criticism of the original cover ... it was just something fun to do. (I'm not fit to carry Basil's water, so the complete impossibilty that I might create something as good has his work was actually a liberating. It's OK to fail!)

Today I took a stab at the cover of Famous Monsters #88, and this felt a little more like a crusade. Nothing against James Storm (he's terrific on Dark Shadows) but the cover devoted to Night of Dark Shadows is among the worst in the magazine's proud run. It's just a weirdly tinted photo from a scene that's not even of real significance to the film ... WTF, guys? The Frid cover was an excuse to polish my vandalism skills, but the Night of Dark Shadows issue was an opportunity to right a wrong. I mean, Lara Parker should have been on that cover, right?

Below are my vandalized covers, as well as thumbnails as they were originally published.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Witchboard: It's Been Emotional



By WALLACE McBRIDE

Witchboard has been a thorn in my side for several years. With titles like "Gothic Tales of Ambient Love" and "Yes, I Drink Blood" (not to mention an album cover that features a still from Night of Dark Shadows) the concepts on display feel almost intrusive in their ability to predict my interests. It's enough to make me wonder if Glenn McQuaid, the one-man band that is Witchboard, has been reading my mail.

But, cool song titles aside, I could never connect with his music. I've found myself returning occasionally to Witchboard's Bandcamp page, curious to see if all the parts will finally align in my mind ... but always leaving disappointed. Why doesn't this stuff work? All the parts are there. No assembly is required. The fault, I've been sure, is my own.

So, after spending a month reading McQuaid's excellent album recommendations on his Instagram account throughout the month of October (I'm now addicted to the Cadabara Records catalog, thanks Glenn) it seemed like a good time to give his alien transmissions  another go. Since the last time I checked in, a feature-length, vinyl only Witchboard album had been released. Rather than continuing to dip my toes in the water with more random sampling of whatever was streaming online, I pulled the trigger and bought the latest LP, "It's Been Emotional."

The vinyl format deprived of the ability to skip around the tracks and forced me to sit still and actually listen to the goddamned music. For the first time, it all clicked. I got it. And I love it.

But the fault might not have entirely been my own. "It's Been Emotional," which falls somewhere on the spectrum between Darkwave and 80s goth revivalism, features more complex work than earlier offerings. The 80s sound (however you might define it) is in vogue right now, with acts as far reaching as Ghost, Gunship and The Cybertronic Spree pursuing that sweet blend of synthesizers, treble-y snare drums and guitar tones so popular (checks calendar) thirty years ago. (Holy shit, I'm old.) Few of the bands I mentioned are willing to stick the landing and let DayGlo color palettes on their album covers carry most of the nostalgic burden. But McQuaid does such a good job of recreating those classic electronic sounds on "It's Been Emotional" that I failed to recognize one of the tracks is from Brad Fiedel's score for Fright Night. How's that for a plot twist?

And that's not even the only vampire invoked on "It's Been Emotional." One track leads with a sample of dialogue from House of Dark Shadows, the rhythm evolving from the sound of David's ball bouncing as he chants "If I catch this one, Carolyn isn't dead." It's not an especially happy sounding song, as you might imagine ... but the overall effect left a smile on my face.

"It's Been Emotional" is limited to 300 pieces and is available from Holy Mounting Printing.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Spend some time with Barnabas Collins this Halloween


Dark Shadows is taking over television this Halloween! With the exception of the 1991 revival series (which is currently streaming in its entirety on Hulu) the entire franchise is pretty well represented. Also, there's some misinformation circulating about what's happening with Decades in October. I've got a copy of the week's broadcast schedule and they are NOT showing 260 episodes of Dark Shadows. Instead, they're going to ring in the witching hour each night with a single classic episode of the series, beginning with #210.

Friday, September 21, 2018

1942 film offers rare color perspective of fictional "Collinwood"



The National Trust for Historic Preservation has an interesting feature story on Lyndhurst Mansion, the Tarrytown, N.Y., location that served as the location of the fictional "Collinwood" in both 1970's HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and its 1971 sequel NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS. It's a well-researched, well-written piece that tells you just about everything you need to know about the historic mansion without ever once mentioning DARK SHADOWS. But that's OK. That's my domain.

The feature has a particularly juicy piece of bait on its hook, though: a rare 1942 color movie showcasing the Lyndhurst gardens. The backstory features a bit of gothic melodrama that proves to be mostly fictional:
"The discovery of this film is significant because it offers, for the first time, a tangible look at the landscape during the period when Lyndhurst was owned by Anna Gould. It had previously been understood that all staff, save for Lyndhurst’s superintendent, Robert B. Allan, were let go when Helen Gould died and that the gardens had consequently languished while Anna occupied the property only part-time. The film proves that this wasn’t the case — that in 1942, the Lyndhurst landscape still very much reflected Helen’s careful stewardship."
You can read the entire piece HERE and it's well worth the time of any DARK SHADOWS fan. There are also a a few little-seen photos of the property dating back to the 19th century. If you've already decided you know all there is to know about Lyndhurst, though, you can skip directly to the movie below. (And don't forget: both HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS will be airing on TCM next month.)

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Come see how the vampires do it on TCM



You might want to stay up past your bedtime on Oct. 27 this year becauseTCM has scheduled Dan Curtis' original DARK SHADOWS movies to air in the wee, wee hours of the morning. HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS kicks things off at 1:30 a.m., followed immediately after by NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS at 3:30 a.m. And, if you're some kind of pervert, switch over to Freeform at 7 a.m. to watch Tim Burton's 2012 DARK SHADOWS.

If you're into that kind of thing, you've got lots of chances to see Burton's cinematic take on the classic television series. Freeform is not only bringing DARK SHADOWS back this year as part of its 13 Nights of Halloween marathon, it's expanding the marathon to a full 31 days. Burton's costume porn is scheduled to air a staggering five times on Freeform during October, once for every horseman of the apocalypse (plus a bonus fifth viewing to put the humanity's last survivors out of their misery.) Here's a full schedule of broadcast dates for October. FYI: I'm still waiting to hear back from Decades, which could possibly air a marathon of the original DARK SHADOWS television series at some point during October. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: There's good news and even better news. Decades will be celebrating Halloween by broadcasting epsisodes DARK SHADOWS throughout the holiday week. Decades will air episodes weeknights at midnight EST beginning Monday, Oct. 29, with episode 210 and ending Friday with episode 214. Sometime next spring, though, Decades has plans to broadcast episodes new to the network. I'm sure we'll be hearing about those plans soon enough.

Click HERE to see if you receive Decades in your hometown.

Oct. 7
11:20 p.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct. 8
6:30 p.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct. 18
6:30 p.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct. 18
3:30 p.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct. 27
7 a.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct 27
1:30 a.m. EST, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS (TCM)
3:30 a.m. EST, NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS (TCM)




Friday, August 24, 2018

What a minute ... when did HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS open?


People like anniversaries. A solid date gives us something on which to hang our history and heritage, but neither of those concepts lend themselves well to fixed schedules. The milestones we love to recognize are often, in the words of Charlotte Brontë, "categorical horseshit."

Such is the case with the release date of HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS. Yesterday, I marked the 45th anniversary of the film's release, using Sept. 9, 1970, as the date of its officially sanction debut. This is the date that IMDB prefers, citing a "premiere" that day in Detroit, Michigan, of all places. It specifies a broader roll out closer to Halloween.


While I don't know when (or even "if") HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS received a formal premiere, movies operated much differently in 1970 than they do today. Back then, little emphasis was placed on opening weekend grosses ... because there was rarely ever anything resembling an opening weekend. Movies were rolled out slowly, sometimes taking months to gain a proper toehold in theaters. Today, a motion picture will make as much as 50 percent of its total gross during the first three days of release. During the 1970s, though, you could expect a film to stay in theaters for months at a time. For example, John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN officially opened Oct. 25, 1978 in Kansas City, Missouri ... but didn't arrive in theaters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until the end of the following November.

Aug. 28, 1970.
So, the Sept. 9, 1970 "debut" of HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS? It's absolutely wrong. In fact HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS started screening to audiences as early as August of that year.

On Aug. 28, 1970, the film opened at the Diane Drive-In in Gastonia, North Carolina. It was paired with Hammer's HORROR OF DRACULA from 1958 as the B-picture. To give you an idea of what kind of movies generally played at the Diane in 1970, the movies playing on these screens during the previous week were THE CHRISTINE JORGENSEN STORY and the 1968 Frank Sinatra thriller, THE DETECTIVE.

From there, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS trickled out to theaters around the country. While it got a boost from the Halloween holiday that year (which probably led to the myth of its October 28 release date) the film was in wide release by the end of September.

If you're looking for a date to recognize as the "official" opening for HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, Sept. 9, 1970, is as good as any. As with most anniversaries, though, the truth is a lot more complicated.


UPDATE: Film archivist and DARK SHADOWS fan Darren Gross found an even earlier showing of HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS. He sent me a scan of a newspaper ad (which you can see above) for a preview of the film that took place Aug. 24, 1970, at The DeMille Theater in Manhattan. He says the October 28 date often referenced is when HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS opened in New York City and Los Angeles.

Note: The DeMille, following a few name changes, closed in 2007. The building was remodeled and served at the site of Famous Dave’s BBQ Restaurant, which closed in 2013. The building was demolished earlier this year.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

House of Dark Shadows ... in 3D!



Consider this a do-over, of sorts. A few weeks back I posted some faux sterographic images of HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, animated gifs consisting of screenshots designed to create the illusion of depth. Since then, I've been tinkering with red and blue anaglyph 3D images based on the original television series. Given the "soft" nature of the videotape used by the series, it's been a real challenge to make those 3D images look like anything other than a hot mess. For every image you've seen there were 3-4 others that didn't work on any level. HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, shot with film and recently remastered by MGM, has none of those image problems. The film's hit-to-miss ratio has been much better, giving me a significantly bigger haul. Rather than dole these out over the course of several weeks, I'm sharing the entire batch in a single post. Once again, you'll need a pair of red/blue 3D glasses to make these images work. Below are links to all six (!) reels I created collecting 48 3D images, posted over at "Blood Drive," the CHS Tumblr feed. I've waived the usual View-master framing on these images because I couldn't stand the idea of cropping them.

REEL 1    REEL 2    REEL 3

REEL 4    REEL 5    REEL 6

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