DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '25 I => Current Talk '02 I => Topic started by: deron on May 20, 2002, 12:53:00 AM
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I have finally gotten to the point in the series where I have seen every episode. I always tape the show and watch it with my wife after work. This is the first time she has seen these episodes at this point, but I find myself tempted to fast foward through most of the dream curse until they come to the last door.
I didn't because my wife hasn't seen them, but on the last one, she told me to fast foward. I love Dark Shadows and have so since I was young, but the Dream Curse sequences and even the characters passing along the curse by telling their dream to someone else is really getting .... well you know.
Once again, I can't wait for Nicolas Blair to knock on the front door of Collinwood for the first time!!! :)
deron
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Oh, no, don't do that!!!! Seems rather sacrireligious somehow. I admit that there are moments that I don't pay a great deal of attention. You know, it is funny the dream curse isn't bothering me as much this time around. YET. :P
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I know, I know. I thought long and hard about posting that! :)
I guess I said that as sort of a confession. I'll try harder next time the curse comes around.
I've been a bad boy! :'(
deron
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I'm with you deron i hate the dream curse! ::)
jennifer
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The first time I saw the Dream Curse episodes, I found them riveting. But then again, I was much younger and less cynical--plus, they were brand-new eps and I couldn't wait to see them!
Now, I'm a lot older, much more cynical and I've seen the Dream Curse at least 4 times.
I think that's enough punishment for anyone!
Love, Robin
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The first time I saw the Dream Curse episodes, I found them riveting. But then again, I was much younger and less cynical--plus, they were brand-new eps and I couldn't wait to see them!
Now, I'm a lot older, much more cynical and I've seen the Dream Curse at least 4 times.
I think that's enough punishment for anyone!
Love, Robin
Robin, you perfectly articulated my own feelings on the dream curse--then and now!
But I can now appreciate other aspects of the show more than I did when I was (much) younger--particularly Thayer David's performance as Prof. Stokes. Some of Stokes' dialogue alone makes it worth sitting through that dream curse mess!
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Don't feel guilty, Deron. I do a bit of FFing myself when I'm watching the tape. This is my least favorite plot/storyline of the show. I never cared for the Adam schtick, and the dream curse does start to get repetitive, although - fortunately - as it progresses the directors do a bit of their own FFing during it. I'm just biding my time until Amy and Chris join the antics and a whole new plot begins.
Gerard
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I always thought the idea of a dream curse was a stroke of genius, but unfortunately, as others have pointed out, it didn't play out well.
A similar idea is in a 1950s movie called "Night of the Demon" or sometimes "Curse of the Demon". It's based on a creepy short story by M.R. James called "Casting the Runes." In the film, the powerful leader of a cult of devil worshippers, in order to protect himself from scrutiny, imposes a curse that's in actuality a death sentence on the men he feels pose a threat to him by having them accept a scrap of paper on which it's written. The only way the recipient can save himself from the completion of the curse at a predetermined time is to pass the curse along in time-- assuming the paper on which the curse is written remains intact-- but the recipient must (again) accept it willingly.
Does anyone know of any other possible inspiration for the dream curse story?
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E.F. Benson's short story "The Room in the Tower" involves a dream that comes repeatedly, and changes each time....but the same person has the dream for years and years. The "horror" that is ultimately revealed involves a woman who committed suicide, was buried in unhallowed ground, and who's portrait hangs in various places in the house. She's waiting to "feast" upon the man who sleeps in the tower room. Her name was Julia (Stone).
Rainey
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This being the first time I'm seeing it, I think the dream curse is really kewl. What I don't like are all these freaking ENDLESS scenes with the late [yaaaay] Lang and Barnabus and Julia. OMG, just let them read their scripts!!! AHHHHHHHHH YAAAACHKKK!!!!!! I fell asleep watching DS the other night.......... :-[ shame on me! But it was all Lang and going ON and ON and ON and OOOOOOONNNNNNNN about Adam and i'm like Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sheesh! :-/
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When my Mom was visiting recently, she continued on with my MPI videos, from where the Sci Fi Channel left off on Dark Shadows on that Friday, and at some point during the Dream Curse, she asked me if she could watch my favorite tapes with Craig Slocum on them, she said she was getting tired of the Dream Curse!
?!?
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I always thought the idea of a dream curse was a stroke of genius, but unfortunately, as others have pointed out, it didn't play out well.
A similar idea is in a 1950s movie called "Night of the Demon" or sometimes "Curse of the Demon". It's based on a creepy short story by M.R. James called "Casting the Runes." In the film, the powerful leader of a cult of devil worshippers, in order to protect himself from scrutiny, imposes a curse that's in actuality a death sentence on the men he feels pose a threat to him by having them accept a scrap of paper on which it's written. The only way the recipient can save himself from the completion of the curse at a predetermined time is to pass the curse along in time-- assuming the paper on which the curse is written remains intact-- but the recipient must (again) accept it willingly.
Does anyone know of any other possible inspiration for the dream curse story?
I love that movie, Midnite! AMC plays it every once in awhile. It still creeps out to this day. I remember reading that there was a real debate about whether or not to show the demon in full view at the end, or just glimpses of it. The first time I saw it, I automatically figured it was the source of the dream curse plotline.
Gerard
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This is my first time seeing the dream curse..I like Cassandra and some aspects of the dream curse, but it gets repetitive. You see the same things over and over again until the new door finally arrives. And Dr. Lang...don't get me started on him! He was pretty annoying...and really overacted. Let's just say I was happy when Cassandra accidently killed him. Since then I've grown to appreciate Mrs. Johnson and Cassandra more then I did before. ;)
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E.F. Benson's short story "The Room in the Tower" involves a dream that comes repeatedly, and changes each time....but the same person has the dream for years and years. The "horror" that is ultimately revealed involves a woman who committed suicide, was buried in unhallowed ground, and who's portrait hangs in various places in the house. She's waiting to "feast" upon the man who sleeps in the tower room. Her name was Julia (Stone).
Hey, Rainey, are you a Benson afficiando too?
Luciaphil
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Yes, Luciaphil.....if you're referring to his ghost stories. I haven't read the "Mapp and Lucia" novels.
I have the 1992 Carol and Graf publication of "The Collected Ghost Stories" (in paperback, edited by Richard Dalby). I've read it through several times in the last 10 years....all 600 plus pages of it....the stories are so perfectly crafted for effect!
Should I begin searching for the "Mapp and Lucia" novels?
Rainey
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Yes, Luciaphil.....if you're referring to his ghost stories. I haven't read the "Mapp and Lucia" novels.
I have the 1992 Carol and Graf publication of "The Collected Ghost Stories" (in paperback, edited by Richard Dalby). I've read it through several times in the last 10 years....all 600 plus pages of it....the stories are so perfectly crafted for effect!
Should I begin searching for the "Mapp and Lucia" novels?
Rainey
Well, I may be somewhat biased ;) (the Mapp and Lucia novels would be from where I take my handle), but I personally love them--not a lot of plot, in fact very little, but great characters, and very, very, funny.
The ghost stories are wonderful too, very creepy. He wrote quite a few of them and I don't know how many are in your anthology, so if you liked those, you might want to go hunting for the others.
Luciaphil
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Thanks Luciaphil.....
I can't imagine (now) how I never recognized E.F. Benson's name in your signature!!!?
This anthology includes all the works he published in his four collections of ghost stories (54 of them) plus an essay he wrote on the Clonmell Witch-Burning ( a true incident in Ireland in which the family and neighbors of a young woman tortured her to death in order to drive out an "evil spirit").
Mr. Benson's essay prompted the Crown prosecutor to reduce the charges from murder to man-slaughter because he argued the relevance of their pagan beliefs so successfully. Quite the writer indeed!!
I shall now make on-line inquiries into the availability of the "Mapp and Lucia" novels!
The rest of you DS Fans who happen to love a good old-fashioned ghost story (the kind that requires a fine-tuned imagination) should look up Mr. Benson's works. ;)
Rainey
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Deron that would be like throwing grandma down the stairs everytime she tells you the story you have heard for the tenth time! Be nice and find something else to appreciate in the story and be good to grandma AND Dark Shadows.