CS Weekly Archive > DVD of the Day > 09/29/06

Staking an Icon

by jason davis

Dark Shadows, Volume 25

Sam Hall and Gordon Russell

Story created and developed by Art Wallace

Series created by Dan Curtis

When the character of reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) saved gothic soap opera Dark Shadows from an early cancellation in 1967, he became a '60s pop-culture icon.  As the series entered 1971 though, Frid was tired of his fangs and the writers employed the show's trademark conceit of recasting actors as new characters to introduce Barnabas' son Bramwell for Frid to play for the remainder of the series' run.  The 40 episodes included in volume 25 find the 1840 storyline quickly wrapping up as the show's action shift's sideways in time to an alternate reality where Bramwell and his beloved Catharine Harridge (Lara Parker) must unravel the secrets of a mysterious lottery that claims one Collins every generation.  In typical Dark Shadows fashion, the storylines borrow liberally from texts like Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", combining those classics with the melodramatic stylings of the perpetually cursed Collins clan to create what would be the last story of the series—without Barnabas, the show was on borrowed time.  Volume 25 includes a recreation, hosted by actor Lara Parker, of the only one of the soap's 1,225 episodes not known to exist, as well as several interviews with cast and crew.

Dark Shadows, Volume 25

MPI Home Video
Not rated; 840 min.

Buy it now

Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly, a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.

Dark Shadows, Volume 25 courtesy MPI Home Video

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