DVDizzy Forum

TVShowsonDVD has reported that MPI will release two compilation DVDs (SRP $19.99) featuring two popular stories from the classic gothic/horror soap opera:

Dark Shadows: The Curse of the Vampire

Dark Shadows: The Haunting of Collinwood

Release date is September 15, 2009. Both will be three hours long and feature select scenes from the episodes*, and a new interview with Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins, "The Curse of the Vampire") and David Selby (Quentin Collins, "The Haunting of Collinwood").

For anyone interested in gothic/supernatural/horror and the 40-episode Collection boxsets are too intimidating (altogether it's 1225 episodes across 128 discs), this is a great way to introduce yourself to the series and have some familiarity with the storylines. "Curse of the Vampire" was originally told over 8 months, and "Haunting of Collinwood" aired over 3 months, so it'd be interesting to see how it gets pared down to 3 hours each.

Plus, it can placate DS fans until House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows hit DVD, and we'll be waiting again for the Burton/Depp remake that's been delayed from filming once again.

I personally hope the next compilation discs will be for the Phoenix storyline and the 1795 storyline.

albert

Would this be worth blind buying? Dark Shadows has interested me for about a year, yet I still haven't seen an episode.

Given that the only other compilations out there are out-of-print VHS tapes, and that the Barnabas and Quentin stories are among the most popular (well, honestly, the Barnabas story is *the* most popular and is usually what the most casual of DS fans remember more of), then yeah, these are good blindbuys.

I've held off on buying the DVD sets because they're expensive as hell ($60 a set, which is actually not too bad, but given there are 31 collections...). Also, due to the nature of soap operas being aired five days a week, the drama can grab you, but at the expense of a lot of repetition at times. So sometimes it wouldn't be good to watch watch one disc at a time of "Dark Shadows" (each disc holds 10 episodes). The compilation DVDs presumably contain the best scenes from the story, or I would hope that it's really just all the necessary scenes for the compilation to make sense as a 3-hour standalone (or at least comprehensible-given-that-they-likely-had-to-omit-characters-and-subplots) movie rather than just a hodgepodge of scenes strung together.

If you're interested in "Dark Shadows" but don't really think the 1966-71 series will hold your attention, there's also the 1991 revival series which streamlines several of the stories from the original (Victoria Winters' arrival, Barnabas' arrival, Victoria goes to 1795) in only 13 episodes (NBC canceled it).

albert

Okay, I may pick up the revival first. Also, is the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton movie still being made?

Panfan wrote:Okay, I may pick up the revival first.

Good man.

If you get hooked through that, check out the compilation DVDs next to see if you wanna invest in the whole 1225-episode saga.

Panfan wrote:Also, is the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton movie still being made?

Yeah. Depp was talking about it recently, but it's been pushed back from 2010 to 2011 because both Burton and Depp have other projects post-Alice.

albert