Very interesting. I'd never heard such frank quotes from Dan Curtis about how desperate he was to wind up Dark Shadows during the final year. It really seems to support the theory I've promoted for years that Dan himself was being DS's cancellation.
The reviewer doesn't say so, but in my opinion John Llewelyn Moxey was a very gifted, highly imaginative director. He also directed The House that would not die--an unusual vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck, based on the Barbara Michaels novel Ammie come home-- for the ABC Movie of the Week series, among several other films. Horror hotel is one of my desert island films; it's so stylish, and has fabulous, idiosyncratic performances.
G.