Saturday, August 26th
Schedule of Events
11:00am DS Fan Videos/DS TV Reunions
12:00pm Guest- Marie Wallace
12:30 Guest- Betsy Durkin Matthes
1:00 DS Memoribilia Auction I
2:00 Big Finish Presents New DS Dramas
2:30 DS Production Panel
3:00 Guest- David Selby
3:30 Guest-Donna MeKechnie
4:00 DS Cast Reunion
4:30 Nancy Barrett in Cabaret Performance
5:15 Autographs/DS Bloopers
6:00 DS Game Shows
6:30 DS Movie Trailers
7:00 Dark Shadows 2004 TV Pilot
7:45 Dark Shadows In Salem
8:00 Costume Gala/Skit
9:15 Anniversary Video from Jonathan Frid
9:30 House of Dark Shadows
11:00 The Great Ice Rip-Off (1974 Grayson Hall/Dan Curtis film)
12:30am Horror Classics
Well as you can see from the scheduled events above, Saturday was supposed to be a very busy day, and that it was. We rose early in the morning and readied ourselves for the day.
If you will recall, in Part 1, I described two hallways in which things were set up. Well, in the second hallway, the one without KLS and Lara Parker, there was another set of doors layed out and lettered much in the same fashion as the previous doors I told you about lettered A-I. These doors were locked from the oustide, all except for one pair down very near the dealers room, through which you could walk and into the Grand Ballroom. Inside the Grand Ballrom, there was a large number of chairs set up from the first day. In the front of the room was a stage, to the left of which they had recreated the drawing room set of Collinwood. It was not an exact replica, but it was pretty close, and a real treat to witness and see in person. They also had the Barnabas Collins portrait from HODS that they would be auctioning later, displayed on a stand in the drawing room. So, of course, I took pictures.
We attended the DS Fan Videos/TV Reunions at 11am. These were a real treat to watch. We stayed more for the Fan Videos than for the Reunions. The fan videos were a variety of things. Music videos that you may or may not have heard about, some of which I believe can be viewed on You Tube. They played one about Barnabas and Julia to a familiar song that, I'm sorry to say, has become less familiar to me upon writing this. But it was very entertaining and very funny, and highlighted their relationship or lack thereof, very well. They also played something called Baby Dark Shadows, which was a sort of parody of the original. The MC who did a lot of host, along with Jim Pierson, Richard Halpern, was in it in his younger days. He, along with a few neices and nephews of his played characters like Magda and Sandor, Charity (possessed by Pansy) and Trask, Jamison, Barnabas, Josette, and Angelique. It was VERY funny. They definitely made light of many situations--such as Jamison and Trask putting him in the closet. There was one scene where Halpern was playing Trask and his nephew was playing Jamison. Trask goes over to the closet and opens it up, snatching something out and turning to Jamison and screaming "WHAT IS THIS COAT HANGER DOING IN YOUR CLOSET? WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO USE IT FOR?!!!!" Hilarious!
During the TV Reunions bit, we left and walked around, going into the dealers room. Once you exited the Grand Ballroom, the entrance to the dealers room was to your immediate left. Once entering that room, to your left, the entire wall was lined with tables. They housed fanzines, back copies of ShadowGram, fan books that were put together explaining and highlighted different storylines, along with TONGS of pictures, all of which were for sale. On the far wall, perpendicular to the previously mentioned table, was another line of tables, with a man behind who was selling copies of tapes from previous Fests, along with pictures and T-shirts that were non-DS related. On the right side of the room was MPI's table, which was in sort of a squared-arch shape. They had a number of different things. DVDs, T-shirts, Bobbleheads, Fanny Packs, Totebags, Checkbook covers, wall clocks, original music CDs as well as the CD version of Return to Collinwood, among other small things. We just browsed and then continued on.
At noon, Marie Wallace was scheduled to appear on stage, and she did at that. I just love Marie, and it was absolutely wonderful to sit and listen to her talk. There's just something about her voice, in my opinion, that is very mesmorizing. She talked about her new book "On Stage and In The Shadows," and then read a passage from it that was remotely entertaining. I'm not sure I would pick it up, but the passage was interesting. Betsy Durkin Matthes was next, and we left during her speech and went outside to the "Middle Hall" through which you could enter the "Main Hall" (where KLS and LP were). To my surprise, we discovered that Mr. Jerry Lacy was in the Middle Hall. His line was rather long, so we walked around a little more and later came back when he wasn't busy. Mom took our program books (which we wanted to get all the stars to sign) and had him sign them for us. I wasn't with her, and when he asked who to sign it to, she said "Brandon." He looked up at her and said "Well, where is he? Wasn't he able to make it?" "Yes," she said, "he's in the Grand Ballroom right now." "Well get him out here later!" Jerry exclaimed. Just a little before 1pm, I came out and went over to Jerry's line. I bought a picture of him as Trask, I believe it was Gregory and had him sign it.
"Who's this to?" he asked politely.
"Brandon," I replied. He looked behind me and saw my mother standing there, and recognized her instantly.
"I missed you earlier," he said, looking down and quickly signing the photo.
"I head that. That's why I came out here," I told him. Then I asked to get a picture and he very happily obliged. We took our picture and he thanked me for coming to see him. He was a very polite man, very personable, and he's another one that I wouldn't mind talking with outside of the convention. And he has beautiful penmanship.
Afterwards it was time for the auction at 1pm. We wanted to watch that so we went inside the Grand Ballroom and took our seats. They had anyone who wanted to see the merchandise to line up and we could walk quickly past the table display. They had a number of things from Dan Curtis' office on both days of the auction. Today they had Dan's black leather jacket, a SciFi award, and a number of other things including a book that he used for research on one of his movies. They also had an original blueprint for a floor plan of the sets for a specific episode, among other smaller things. The auction was very interesting, and may items stayed in the lower rangers, below $200.
Big Finish Productions came on next to introduce their new Dark Shadows Audio Dramas. The were from England, and Stuart Manning was one of them. He runs the collinwood.net website, and wrote the first drama. Scott Handcock was also there, and he is the writer of the second drama. They spoke about how the project came about, what it was like getting the stars back together again, and took questions. One person asked if they sold enough would they continue the series, and they answered that as long as it was financially fesable and the series did well like their Dr. Who series, they don't see any reason why they couldn't continue.
The production panel came on next which included George DiGenzo, Stuart Goodman, Jim Butler, and Les Schecter. They spoke about their time on Dark Shadows and entertained questions about the technical aspect of the series. They couldn't answer certain questions, ones particularly about lighting and the like, but they tried their best. Mr. Goodman relayed the familiar story about using plastic wrap and vaseline to create the dreamlike image that we saw many times throughout the show. He also answered a question about how they made people appear and disappear out of scenes. He said that the actor who was going to appear or disappear would stand in one part of the studio in front of a green or blue screen, while the other actors would stand on the set performing the scene. Then when it came time to make the person appear/disappear, they would overlay the person into the actual scene that was being performed.
We stayed in the Grand Ballroom for a long time today, as there were many different things that we wanted to watch. Next was David Selby who came on stage and read a passage from his new book. He read about his mother, then spoke of his father. It was very touching. before he spoke about his father, he said "When I was writing this book, I wrote a passage about my father and how he delt and got by after my mother's death. My father recently passed away last week," there was a collective "Awwww" heard from the crowd, but Selby just waved his hand and said it was all right, then continued with his reading. It was very thought provoking, what he wrote. He wrote about how his father had depended on his mother through their entire life, never having to do housework. And after his mother's death, they hired someone to help him, but his father never liked these people. There were many heartwarming parts and laughter filled the room during other sentences as well. It was clear, to me anyway, that there was a certain small tone of regret in his voice, particularly when he spoke about his father always telling him that he thought David should come home, but David never stayed as long as his father had wished. And when he suggested to his father that he might be happier at a home, and his father refused, it was clear that he wised he had've spent more time with him.
We left during Donna McKechnie's speech around 3:30, and got something to eat knowing that we would be in for a long night, and we wanted to be back in time for the Cast Reunion. We returned in time for the Reunion, and that was certainly a treat to have the entire cast that was there to be up on stage. They went through the line one by one and gave some insight on their time in Dark Shadows and what they were currently up to. Everyone seemed to have a new book out, and when it came time for John Karlen (who was second to last) to speak, he stood up and said "Don't you think it's about time for us to retire?" Laughter ensued. "I haven't done anything in the past years, nothing, not at all." Everytime John spoke on stage or anywhere else laughter always surrounded him, and he truly is a wonderful and generous person.
The case reunion came along, and we had returned to the hotel earlier from getting something to eat and bring it back with us, thus, we were running late getting to the reunion. When we entered the grand ballroom, someone was speaking over the microphone. Taking our seats, I listened to the voice and instantly recognized it as Jonathan Frid's! I looked up on stage and saw that Jim Pierson was holding up a phone to the mic and he was speaking with Jonathan. As some may have mentioned, may were screaming out "We love you!" and clapping and cheering profusely. After the phone call ended, KLS remarked that she had tears in her eyes, and the cast all agreed that it was really great to hear from Jonathan again. We stayed seated for Nancy Barrett's performance, which was--to put it in the best terms I know how--not good, but not bad either. She had to start over at least two times. The first time I think she just missed her cue or something, and the second time she got into a musical number and saw someone who had a video camera and was recording and she said "Turn that off" and started over once more. The show was longer than was necessary, in my opinion, and the only real highlight from her show was when she briefly sang part of Quentin's theme, I Wanna Dance With You, and she sang some song about loving Barnabas and then unrolled a poster of his portrait and hugged it and kissed it, which was rather humorous.
Saturday night's autograph session came up next, and made the rest of the things all night run late. I stood in line for about an hour I believe. This was Nancy Barrett's first night signing autographs, and while we were standing in line they played bloopers from the new "Bloopers and Treasures" DVD inside the Grand Ballroom, which I also got to watch part of. You see, the line formed inside the Grand Ballroom on the left wall, the other side of which was behind the tables at which the actors were sitting. So they simply lined us up and looped us around and out of a door and back down the other side of the wall in the Middle Hallway. David Selby was to the right after you exited the door, and he was by himself so there were several volunteers that were going down the line and asking if there was anyone for David Selby only. Soon after, Donna McKechnie moved over to sit next to David, so my Mom, once we were out of the door, went over to Donna and got her to sign our program books, then handed them off to me because I was in the other line. The line I was in led up to Nancy Barrett, John Karlen, Chris Pennock and Marie Wallace. I only needed Nancy and John, as I had gotten Chris and Marie's early today. I reached Nancy and she got up and left, saying that she was very tired after her performance and needed some rest. I felt sorry for her because when she got up to leave many people left the line and mobbed her, asking for autographs. She was very nice and gradually signed them all before breaking away from the non-existant crowd and heading off with her husband.
Meanwhile, I was still in the line and reached John Karlen whom was happy to sign our program books as well as pose for a picture with me. I stepped out of the line and we went back into the Grand Ballroom, taking our seats. We caught the tail end of the DS Game Show appearances by DS stars, which included Alex Stevens appearing as the Wolf Man and Joan Bennett appearing as herself on some old game show (lol). They soon began showing various movie trailers which are also on the "Bloopers and Treasures" DVD (which I purchased a copy of on Sat, thank god, because they were sold out on Sunday). Soon after they began the 2004 Pilot.
The Pilot--
This deserves it's own section because there's a lot to say about it. The show began with Jim Pierson saying that it could not be videotaped because it was copyrighted material, and asking everyone to put their camera's away and that a guard would be walking about to be sure that everyone obliged. He explained that they had an initial director with whom Dan Curties had worked on the 1991 Revival Series along with a couple other projects, but unfortunately he had to bow out due to some reason or other. So they got another director who's vision was different from the first director's and Dan Curtis', and that it would be particularly apparent in the last scene, and that it was. With that, the show began.
We open on a young and BLONDE Victoria Winters, sitting on a train headed for Collinsport. She looks out the window, and soon the lights begin flickering on and off. They go off, and Vicki gets up to walk around, hearing her name being called. She moves to the end of the car, looking out the door and inbetween the car she is in and the one behind, she sees a little boy, trapped. He screams out for her to help him, and she tries to open the door but can't. The boy sinks below the window, out of view, and suddenly POPS up as a scary monster demon, with green rotting skin, a few strands of gray stringy hair flying around, and long reaching finers with sharp fingernails at the end. Vicki begins screaming and then she wakes up from her dream to find an old man staring at her.
At the train station, Vicki gets off the train and walks into the rain. She looks around, not sure of where to go, but walks down the sidewalk and to a pay phone where she picks up the reciever. Then someone taps her on the shoulder and she turns around to find Willie Loomis standing there. He introduces himself and says that he's sorry he wasn't there to get her off the train, but that he arrived late. He takes her to Collinwood and drops her off, where Elizabeth recieves her and introduces her to Roger.
Back at the cottage on the Collinwood grounds, Willie is fooling around with his girlfriend. They begin to rip each others clothes off (this is certainly an updated version! Not your grandpa's DS!) and then she stops him, saying that she found a map to where the Collins family jewels are--the family crypt. She wants to go tonight, and threatens a reluctant Willie that if he doesn't go, he can kiss her goodbye.
At the cemetery, they enter the Collins crypt. They look at the map and the clues "The Lion Head Watches The Dove" and she reaches up to grab the dove's head but breaks it off and cuts her hand. Willie reaches up and pushes a hidden button, opening a secret passage. They enter the room and find a coffin. Breaking the chains off the coffin, they lift the lid and find a decayed old body, hands folded over chest in Egyptian style. She doesn't know why this is--the jewels have to be around here somewhere, and tells Willie to help look through the coffin. He says he ain't touchin' that thing, and walks away. She holds the flashlight above the coffin, looking around, and we watch as her blood trickles down the side of the flashlight and across the front, a few drops falling onto the corpse's upper lip. She moves away and pulls a cover off the wall, and gold coins come falling out in a coin-waterfall. The corpse wakes up and Willie is scared, and tries to attack it, but the corpse throws Willie to the ground, holding him there with just his foot on Willie's chest. He grabs Willie's girlfriend and lifts her high into the air, then bends down and bites into her neck. We watch her face fade from being full of life and pink, to being nothing and rotten and green like the corpse was when we saw it in the coffin.
At Collinwood, Vicki is sleeping. She wakes up, hearing water running. She steps onto her floor and walks towards the bathroom, soon stepping in a pool of water. She creaks open the bathroom door and enters, seeing that the tub is overflowing. She looks as if she thinks this is a dream, but bends over the tub and finds little David (who is very very very troubled as his Aunt Liz and Roger had already told Vicki). David SHOOTS up out of the tub, screaming, and Vicki jumps back, allowing David to jump out of the tub and on to the floor and run out of the room. Vicki tracks David down in his room and he is seated on his bed. She sits in a chair, telling him that this will be the last time she will be dealing with something like this, and any time after this his father and Aunt will find out what he's done. "This time is on the house," she says. She tells him that she is not afraid of him, and that she wants to help him and be friends with him. "You should be," (afraid of him) he tells her.
Next scene, we see someone with short, dark hair, sitting on a bench in the hallway of Collinwood. Vicki enters and we find out that the sitting person is Carolyn. (Switch the hair ladies! <g>) Vicki sits next to her and they talk about David. Carolyn says that he is a little terror and tells Vicki in so many words that she can't believe that Vicki took the job. Carolyn gets up to leave and tells Vicki she'll give her a tour of Collinwood tomorrow. As she is walking away, Carolyn rolls her eyes, signaling that she doesn't approve of Vicki.
Joe Haskells boat--Carolyn and Joe are making out, bantering over the fact that this will be the last time they see one another once Joe leaves on his two week boat trip. Soon after, Carolyn leaves the boat. The scene switches so that we see her walking along the street, alone, at night, heading to her car. Something rustles in the trees above her and she look sup, seeing nothing. A few leaves fall to the ground ahead of her, as if something knocked them off the tree. She continues walking, at a brisker pace now, and hears the rustling again. She looks up and sees some kind of dark shadowed thing up there, that is rather large. She reaches her car and begins fumbling with her keys, when, from the top of the screen, two green decaying corpse-like hands SHOOT DOWN and grab her, snatching her up. (Some of the crowd gasped and yelped at this point, scary scary.)
The next morning, Vicki is having breakfast with Liz. Vicki asks Liz if she could provide more background on David, saying that it would help in her befriending him and teaching him. Liz says that all the background she needed was in the files that was sent to her (which she looked over on the train). Vicki says that the file was a start, but that the file mentioned nothing of David's mother, and she is wondering why. Liz gets a stark look across her face, clearly telling us that this is a subject about which they do not speak. Liz eyes a servant who is pouring tea or coffee, and when the servant leaves, Liz tells Vicki the story. David's mother was committed to a mental insitution five years ago, and that they don't speak of it. Vicki asks if she went insane, and just then, the servant bursts through the doorway from the hall, holding the phone, saying it's Carolyn and that she's in trouble.
At the hospital--a room that is reminiscent of an ER set, probably curtosey of John Wells, Dr. Julia Hoffman, the asian version, is working on Carolyn. Joe Haskell and Liz and Roger run up to the trauma bay doors, watching as Carolyn is being worked on. The doctors push Carolyn's bed through the doors and head down the hall, Joe, Liz and Roger following them. They all know Julia already, and are bombarding her with questions--what happened, when did it happen, how is she, will she be all right? Julia stops to talk to them, saying that Carolyn has two suspicious bite marks on her neck. At this time the sheriff comes up. She says the bite marks aren't like anything she has ever seen before.
That night, someone knocks on the door to Collinwood, and it let in. He sees Roger and Liz, and introduves himself as Barnabas Collins, a cousin from England. This entire scene is basically the same exact sence from HODS when Barnabas introduces himself. "Oh you look like the portrait, blah blah." "Can I restore the Old House? blah blah" and th like. Liz and Roger agree, Roger saying that he wants no part of the restoration because he thinks it is a waste of money. Barnabas meets Vicki, and is obviously smitten with her.
Upstairs, David is in his room. He lies, sleeping. Softly, a female voice comes calling his name. He wakes up and looks around. "Mother?" he calls. He looks out the window and, seeing no one, still hears the voice and knows that he must go outside. He runs out of the room, down the hall, and out the front door. David follows the voice to the graveyard, and makes his way to a grave, all the while the woman's voice still calling him. She directs him to save her, to dig her up, and he does so, digging up a skeleton. He sees a dagger with a jeweled hilt stuck in the rib cage and pulls it out. Immediately, at the far end of the shot, a womanly figure surrounded with light appears. "Mother is that you?" David calls. "It is m, but not as you remember," she answers. We have a close up on her face, and though it is shrouded in darkness, we see that her face is heavily decayed and ugly, much like the corpse that we saw earlier. She advances on him, her arms outstreched, and takes her in his arms, saying that she loves him. By this time, she is now looking like a flesh and blood woman, with "fire read hair and dark eyes", long finger nails, and an interesting outfit. She is beautiful.
At Collinwood, David comes running in screaming, knowing that the woman he met in the graveyard was trying to kill him. Vicki, Liz, and Roger appear, and see that David is still holding the dagger he pulled from the ground. Vicki and Liz try to calm him, to find out what happened, but he continues screaming and Roger grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him hard, telling him to stop the nonsense and go upstairs! The two women give him evil glances.
Later, Vicki goes in to check on David, finding that he is not in his room. She moves over to the window and sees him running down the hill behind Collinwood. She yells out for him to stop, but he just turns and looks at her and continues. She chases after him, chasing him to the Old House, where they enter. Willie comes out and tells them they have to leave, and Vicki remarks on how different he looks. He's lost the glasses he wore earlier, and looks a lot better. He says nothing, and barnabas enters from behind them. He says hello, and David moves back, obviously afraid of him. Vicki takes the dagger from David and David tells Vicki they should go home now. "He's evil!" David screams. Vicki tells Barnabas that she's sorry for the intrusion, she loves how the place is coming along, but that she needs to get David back home. Barnabas says thaat Willie can take him, that he has something he wants to show her. Willie obliges, and David willingly goes back to Collinwood with him.
Barnabas takes Vicki upstairs to Josette's room and shows her Josette's portrait and her music box, which Vicki opens and plays the music to. The musix box is not the same as the original one, but is instead a base white box with a lid that opens, and some kind of design on the outside. Vicki says that the music and portrait are very beautiful, and Barnabas tells her that she looks very much like Josette. Vicki is still holding the dagger and Barnabas asks where she got it. She says that David found it when he ran out of the house the other night. She tells barnabas that David came back screaming about a woman who had "fire red hair and very black eyes". Barnabas looks startled, and Willie reappears, Vicki says that she needs to go, and gives Barnabas the dagger. He is startled and Willie asks him what's wrong, and barnabas said that they buried her long ago with this dagger left in her heart. Willie asks who, and Barnabas answers "Angelique."
Later during the night, Vicki is sleeping in her room and Barnabas enters through the window. He walks over towards her bed and does the routine "Oh Josette, Josette, you've come back to me blah blah blah" and all that jazz and Vicki wakes up. Before she can catch a glimpse of him, Barnabas is out the window and is nowhere to be seen. Vicki gets up and goes to the window and sees that there is nothing, while the camera angle allows us to see that Barnabas is sticking to the side of the house just above her window, in the Spiderman fashion.
Vicki is driving down the road. She is going rather fast, and goes around a turn. She looks further down the road and finds a woman in a red dress, Angelique, standing there, and can't help but to hit her head on. Angelique crashes up and into the windsheild with her head, and remains there, unconscious as Vicki swerves off the road and runs into a tree. Vicki's head has hit the steering wheel and she was knocked out. The horn blares loudly. Soon she wakes up, touching her soft head, being careful of the wound. She looks and see Angelique's body laying along the hood of her car, and Angelique's head sticking through the windshield. Angelique stirs slightly, then her head SHOOTS up and she looks, wide-eyed and bloody-faced at Vicki. She opens her mouth, revealing sharp teeth (think Headless Horseman in the movie Sleepy Hollow, with Johnny Depp) and sort of hisses at Vicki. Vicki SCREAMS aloud, and Angelique screams along with her, in a very scary scene. Unfortunately, when Vicki screams again, so does Angelique, and this pattern goes on--Vicki screams, Angelique screams, Vicki screams, Angelique screams--for at least 5 repetitions. While it was scary at first, it now becomes funny, and many people, including myself, laugh.
The episode ends, and we see "Executive Producers: Dan Curties & John Wells" appear on the screen. Everyone clapped. I thought the episode was very well done, and it's a shame that the series didn't get picked up. The actress who played Liz was spot on with the tones and looks that Joan Bennett used to give to Roger when she played Liz. The actor who played Roger was slightly off, but I could've gotten used to it. I really loved Vicki's being strong and telling David like it was--I'm not going to take this crap--instead of saying "I don't understand!" It was a welcome change in her character. David was different, very much so, from the original series. He actually seemed to be troubled here, like FOR REAL, and was very intriguing in the way he was portrayed. Barnabas was very well done by Alec Newman, and the only bad thing I have to say about him was that he mad ethe scene where he said "Josette, you have returned to me," seem cheesy, instead of making it look like Barnabas was longing for Josette. It seemed to me as if Angelique was David's mother, or maybe she was just pretending to be. Overall, it was very exciting, and I would have definitely watched it if it had been picked up. It had a scary-movie quality to it, while being completely different from anything else currently out there, much in the Dark Shadows fashion.
The Fest con't--
Before the 04 Pilot, I believe they showed DS in Salem, which was hosted by Lara Parker. This was a short 15-20 minute video about her research for her new book when she went to Salem, Mass. It was rather boring (no talkshow for you!!). After this they showed Jonathan Frid's video greeting. It was so great to see him again! and he looks great! It was entertaining in the first part, but once he started his Shakespeare reading he lost my interest. I love his readings, but there was just too much other stuff going on, so I got up.
By this time, everything was running VERY VERY late, like an hour and a half late. So even though HODS was supposed to being at 9:30, I don't think it began until around 11 or later, because I didn't return to my room that night until around 2am, and the other two movies still hadn't been shown yet.
More to come!!
