Night of Dark Shadows

Dan Curtis is well-liked by older horror fans so maybe this seemed fresh at the time, but it's aged very badly. Even if the Shining hadn't taken the same plot & done it better in every way, the romance-novel-level is high & 1971 tv movie. The first 1/2 hour is a slog as modern horror fans will know exactly what the mystery is & when the film finally lets the protagonists know what's up, it seems like things might improve but they don't. The ending's unexpected but that's also b/c it's tacked on

Nicely atmospheric and moody, and the piano-based soundtrack was an interesting change of pace from the series. I think it's probably best to think of it as one of those parallel-time stories from DS rather than a mainstream continuation; at any rate, it plays like a really excellent TV movie. Unfortunately, most of the last 2 reels were filmed in broad midnight...and I guess you could say that not a lot happened throughout. But I found the proceedings quite engaging anyway.

Confusing continuation of the Dark Shadows mythos. In its current form, the film makes only a minor impression; if the uncut version ever surfaces, it may improve the end result considerably.