Does anyone else agree...

[Shadowsfan]

That Dark Shadows was at it's scariest when it was broadcast in black and white and when all you had was a certain Vampire torturing  his female victims  ?   It was great when all these other supernatural charecters came to the scene but I tended  to find it more amusing than scary..There was something about it mostly being like a regular soap in the beginning and just one  supernatural being:) any other opinions?

[CastleBee]

I've always loved the B&W eps.  I agree that the early Barnabas ones have a particularly eerie and unique feeling.

[michael c]

That Dark Shadows was at it's scariest when it was broadcast in black and white and when all you had was a certain Vampire torturing  his female victims  ?   It was great when all these other supernatural charecters came to the scene but I tended  to find it more amusing than scary..There was something about it mostly being like a regular soap in the beginning and just one  supernatural being:) any other opinions?

i could not agree more.for me the most successful stories were the laura collins story,the early barnabas story and the 1795 story for the very reason that there was a single outside threat among an otherwise normal(if eccentric)group of people.and i love that these threats occur amid "regular" soap opera stuff.i gives just enough suspence and quirky charm and you care about the characters in jeopardy.

once eveyone is a monster it's way more campy than scary or supenceful and it's difficult to become emotionally involved with the characters.

[Gothick]

Of course, I have to chip in my own opinion, and as usual, I irritatingly disagree.

I have just been watching weeks 10 through 13 of 1897. [spoiler]The unfolding of Quentin's curse, Laura's story, Angelique's role in everything, and the occasional scenes of Barnabas doing his vampire thing all works together really well.  Quentin's anguish is anything but campy.  Horrifying though Laura is, Millay brings an element of poignancy to her final episodes.[/spoiler]

Just my not-so-humble opinion.  If we all agreed, what would there be to discuss?

G.

[CastleBee]

Just my not-so-humble opinion.  If we all agreed, what would there be to discuss?

Why, hairstyles of course! 

 

[jennifer]

i agree wth Gothick i find until Barnabas came to the scene dull i just think it was a different story
and see why they had to "spice" it up with the supernatural. while i do believe
some of the B&W were creepier i don't really favor them. Just a color girl i quess!

jennifer
hairstyles are good CastleBee beats politics and religion!(esp these days!)

[Patti Feinberg]

early Quentin was one of the spookiest, imho.

But, what about 1995...when, instead of it happening around them,
[spoiler]Dr. Hoffman and Barnabas have to discover what 'happenED'??[/spoiler]

I love, love LOVE Laura v Barn and Laura v. Angelique, but, since it was novel, I'd have to say the 1966 Phoenix storyline is one of the best...they had/took the time to really proceed...your  curiosity was piqued,,,but not overwhelmed.

Patti

[CastleBee]

hairstyles are good CastleBee beats politics and religion!(esp these days!)

That's for sure! Unless you actually enjoy being miserable that is.

[Gerard]

I thoroughly enjoyed the B&W episodes; they were far more atmospheric, and the special effects were superior, since the "graininess" of the darks and grays made them seem far more realistic - the scene of Josette's ghost walking out of the portrait comes to mind.  However, I can not imagine the 1795/96 storyline in anything but color.  Especially with those costumes, it was wonderfully lush.

Gerard

[stefan]

Yes, I agree totally!! It is that very fact which makes earlier DS plus 1795 so compelling. I can't tell you HOW dissapointed I became after my tapes started to get into the "dream curse", "Adam" and Tom Jennings warewolf stuff. Yuck! I stopped buying after that time period and ordered more 1795 and early DS tapes again. I just pretend I never saw it [spoiler]like I pretend Barnabas does not succumb to Angelique at the end of the series <<shudder>>..[/spoiler]Though, it's nothing to do with the actors....all of them are just fine..Robert Rodan could not have done better as Adam and was suprisingly good, menacing and sometimes touching. Humbert Astredo was great as Nickolas and Don Briscoe very likeable and [spoiler]I was very impressed by the very funny cameo performance of Conrad Bain as the bewildered innkeeper who gets mauled by T. Jennings/warewolf in a Saturday Night Life worthy horrible Godfather like montage - criss-crossing between the hokey warewolf mauling with oh so obvious phoney blood and H. Astredo hamming it up while sacrificing Maggie as his devil bride. I just try not to think about it.[/spoiler]

[Maybellique]

    I'm in total agreement with this one.

   Hi, I'm DJ and I'm new here. Been trying to get into this forum for MONTHS! But, as far as the subject goes, I have a very vivid imagination and once watched the introduction of barn episodes on my laptop. I had my headphones on, the volume option turned to theatre and the lights off. Doing that, it was very easy to put myself in particularly Maggie's shoes when (not trying to spoil anything here) a certain incident involving Barnabas occurred. It was a very scary situation for her, I would imagine, being away from her family, her friends, not  knowing what to expect next. Some of those earlier eps I will admit are the stuff that nightmares are made of. ~DJ

[IluvBarnabas]

I agree the black and white episodes (before and after Barnabas) had a more eerie quality to it but I never had a problem with it suddenly being colorized. A lot of shows around that time went from black and white to color (Bewitched, The Beverly Hillbillies, I Dream of Jeannie and Gilligan's Island to name a few).

I don't however see that DS became campy went it went to color. Sure there were a lot of bloopers I laughed at but the stories were so compelling as were the performances that I find myself completely enthalled in them and the characters.