dark culture. movies, books, toys, papercraft.
Terror Tales 1940 05
TWO STRONGLY CONTRASTED
NOVELETTES OF UNUSUAL TERROR!
MISTRESS OF THE DARK POOL
by RUSSELL GRAY
TEST-TUBE FRANKENSTEIN
by WAYNE ROBBINS
also
DONALD DALE
CHARLES BOSWELL
1940 is a little late for me to be posting, but it’s got MERMAIDS! Mermaids!
darkinthedark does not claim copyright on this image. If you are the copyright holder and object to this image appearing here please contact me.
Sometimes movie titles are wrong. For example, a better title for The Fly might have been She Didn’t Like How the Accident Left Him. Or Boris Karloff’s The Mummy might have better been titled After All That, She Still Escaped. Hmmmmm. I can feel a real roll coming on. How about this for the first Alien movie? Only Her Underwear Made the Terror Pause. Seems like a lot of monsters have girl trouble, doesn’t it? I sure know how that feels. Then a better title for House of Dark Shadows would no doubt be: Woman Trouble Again for Barnabas.
Problem #1: Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall)
Problem #2, Seen Here Being Ignored by Barnabas
The movie very roughly follows the Barnabas Collins book I reviewed not too long ago. Of course, Barnabas originated from the popular gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid) is awakened by a grave robber, and approaches the Collins family in the guise of a long lost cousin from England. Naturally, before long, all the ladies of the house are fawning over him. For better or for worse, Barnabas falls for a different girl who reminds him of his lost love, Josette (who threw herself off a cliff when she discovered the secret of his curse.)
Most of the characters spend the bulk of the movie unaware that Barnabas is a vampire. The only person who puts two and two together has such an annoying speech affectation that nobody will take him seriously. Dr. Julia Hoffman, however, manages to put the pieces together. Here is her “Aha!” moment:
I see!
It turns out that the good doctor lets her emotions get in the way and devises an antidote to the vampiric cells in the bloodstream of Barnabas Collins. Before long, she is administering shots to Barnabas, who, of course, uses her like a door mat.
Barnabas is in love with Maggie Evans (played by Kathryn Leigh Scott) and the shots the doctor has been giving him allow him to walk around in daylight for the first time in hundreds of years.
Problem #3
Such a cute and seemingly carefree couple. But can Barnabas find true happiness? One would hope so. Now that Barnabas has found his love again, he will stop at nothing to make her his bride. Barnabas is my man. The movie is admittedly kind of a stinker. Netflix doesn’t carry it, and my rat army could only find it in VHS. There are, however, some great atmospheric shots, a lot of bad drama, a dash of fakey medical jargon, some shooting of silver bullets, and a really excellent vampire staking scene.
It just so happens that the folks at The Obscure Hollow have posted some great shots from the movie, and it looks like they got their hands on a better copy of it than I did. So you should go check it out.
Creepy Factor: 2 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 2 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 2 out of 5
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 4 out of 5
Final result: Truly, the world should have a taste of the Real Thing before Tim Burton and Johnny Depp give Dark Shadows a try.
House of Dark Shadows – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – 1971
Dark Shadows Soap Opera 
Thanks for reading another one of my movie reviews. Hopefully next time I review a nice juicy horror novel with loads of Weird Erotic Tension.
Ugh. The heat is starting to make my life come apart at the seams. The garden gnomes who normally keep the generator for my underground laboratory running have gone on strike and their union leader just informed me that the only way to get them back to work will involve several iPhones and an unimaginable amount of chocolate pudding (let’s just say that you don’t want to know.) I knew it was a bad idea to give those tiny little men (with their maddening little green coats and tiny red hats) a television. I thought they just wanted to watch George Pal animated movies. Now look at what’s happened!
Just two super-quick notes on this sweltering hot Tuesday:
1) Regular readers will remember my recent interview/review with Crankbunny. Craftside has interviewed her as well. Check it out.
2) If you’re not reading Coilhouse yet, I think you should start. I know, I know: They’ve got a picture of a unicorn with purple highlights on their home page, but it can’t be their fault! Either they are contractually obligated by some witch doctor, or it’s a trick. (For the record, I’m not affiliated with Coilhouse. I’m telling you this for your own good.)
An insane and deadly five-eyed monster with a woman’s body. As you can see in the picture, these monsters are like vampires in that their victims are hypnotized into a false sense of security, mostly by use of their huge googly eyes, but also by spouting surreal poetry. Like vampires they like to dress up. Observe the dialogue:
Victim: Comment! Tu ne gagnes que 100 francs par mois?
Monster: Oui, mais j’ai 10% sur la location des l’orgnettes…
Victim: But how! You are making 100 Francs a month?
Monster: Yes. But I take 10% from the rental of the opera glasses.
I finally got my hands on some nicer copies of the Alice in Wonderland photos that were released last week. Today is the day of the official Alice 2010 trailer release (although there was already a leak and those of you who can use Google properly will be able to track it down very easily.)
Don’t miss my very own Alice in Wonderland 2010 fan site.
© 2008-2010 Dark in the Dark * Reviews, News and Toys * All Rights Reserved
RSS Feed
