I've watched this movie with many non DS fans, and they always find it confusing. If the audience for the film were comprised of DS fans, the characters would need no introduction. Unfortunately many movie goers were uninitiated to the World of Dark Shadows. The show was on in the daytime. Many people were working. Unlike today, there was no timeshifting or Soap Net. So we open with Maggie. Who is she? We know she's looking for David, but that's it. We know that "he's not in Mrs. Stoddard's room". Who is she? David's mother? Well, we find out soon enough that Mr. Collins is David's father and Maggie is obviously his employee. She goes off looking for him. We are introduced to Elizabeth and Carolyn. If we are paying attention, we might connect that she's Mrs. Stoddard. In my experience with reasonably intelligent people watching the film, the last name goes out into the ether, unremembered the assumption is made that she's Roger's wife. She's a bit old to be David's mother, but not impossibly so. She's pushing 60 and he's about 13; she could have had a child that late in life. She looks more like his grandmother though. If that's the case, where is David's mother? We are never told. If we are paying very close attention, we might work out that Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, as she's eventually identified, MUST be Roger's sister. Carolyn is clearly her daughter, so we know she's his cousin. That's asking a great deal from you audience and would ordinarily earn a charge of "sloppy writing". However, if one reads the script in the Movie Book, most of these questions are answered! They only leave out the whereabouts of David's mother. The gutted theatrical version excises much of the necessary exposition, leaving the character's relationships a jumbled mess for the audience to decipher.
