House of Dark Shadows

There are some well shot scenes but this is a slowly paced mess of unexplained contrivances. Presumably condensing a series into a movie resulted in all these plot holes? .Why does Stokes become sure Barnabas is a vampire the minute he sees him in the daylight? Are Elizabeth or her husband needed in this story? Why do the cops suddenly believe Carolyn’s a vampire & are totally on board with staking her rather than cuffing her? Why does Julia fall in love with Barnabas?

greatest vampire movie ever!

Pretty hokey directing in a lot of places. But Frid as always is great fun in his iconic role as the Reluctant Vampire. Certainly a lot better production values than the TV show!--on the other hand, you can also sorta feel yourself missing the cheesy snafus, and the intimacy (or whatever it is) that such things provide (as well as the starkness of the early black and white episodes).

A rather unique feature as soap opera showrunners attempt to condense an entire season of plot into 96 minutes. The broad strokes of the characters are the same ("He's a vampire! He wants her because she looks like a girl he used to love! End of character development!") and a little off putting. However, there are some gorgeous scenes, and even a few chilling ones. And it's all worth it to learn that Willy Loomis is the hero, an asshole who had to become enslaved to evil to learn to resist it.