wow. that's a lot of work to connect the two.


other than the fleeting mention of liz no reference made even obliquely to anything or anyone that had ever appeared in any other variation of the story. the setup is completely different. it's an interesting theory but  unfortunately can only be read as fan fiction since nothing that actually takes place in the film supports it or even hints at such a scenario.


seems easier to just read them as stand alone stories.

what's interesting is that there has always been talk that NODS somehow "failed" because of the absence of frid. that when he opted out it was instantly doomed...


but as it stood structurally there was no role for frid. or at least not barnabas. had he decided to participate in another movie it would have been a second film or more of a traditional sequel but not this film even if it had been called "NODS".


this was entirely structured around David Selby and Kate Jackson. if frid had been on board they'd have had much different/smaller parts to play.


and yes, going back to the earlier question it would appear that the two films exist as stand alone stories with no literal connection to the series or each other other than flying under the DS banner.

if I recall they employed a few of the classic musical cues but it also had it's own separate score.

despite it's buzz saw editing job the film has some merits to me. it has distinct gloom and atmosphere...


but, as you say, it is DS in name only. it has nothing whatsoever to do with OS story continuity and stands alone in the "canon". despite it's name, location and OS cast to me it feels more like any early 1970's horror movie. without stalwarts like frid, bennett and edmonds the true DS "flavor" is not achieved which is what curtis might have been going for anyways. a new mood.


even with the putative "luxury" of the lyndhusrt setting it has the distinct look of a drive-in "b" movie. or even made for television. and for me, like greystone, lyndhurst is decidedly not collinwood. seaview is. so I have no emotional or visual connection to the location.

I agree gerard...


the buffy harrington character/storyline was in a general of a more "adult" sensibility than some of the more adolescent plotting. and the scene you describe, with it's undercurrents of sadomasochism, was striking in it's sexual frankness given the time and the perimeters the series had set for itself.


and the early barnabas/maggie stuff was highly disturbing in it's cruelty and sadisticness. even if we were not dealing with a "vampire", take that element out of it completely, and have it just be about a man trying to turn a defenseless woman into the image of a dead lover, through the complete eradication of her own identity, was strong stuff. that imagery was indelible for me and in later storylines when they attempted to pair the two up romantically I couldn't get past it and found it revolting.

needless to say the murder of doctor woodard was shocking in it's bleakness and profound sense of betrayal and despair. it's almost overpowering to watch.

and in a similar vein to the yeager/buffy scenes adam's strongly implied attempted sexual assault of carolyn(although, again, the word "rape" was never spelled out in specifics)was pretty stunning too.


because the supernatural stuff was so far out and, in some cases, even rather ridiculous, I've always found the incidents of more human cruelty to be more disturbing than anything else. when those scenes were well played they were quite shocking.

thanks midnite...

although it departs out of new york the cruise is a bit more than I want to deal with. although i'll be curious to hear about it from those in attendance.

as the stereotypically self-possessed new yorker I've been content with the old-school biannual festival...


true it's repetitive but in terms of DS it has what i'm looking for. a full weekend chock-a-block of activity, film and video, full dealers room and the full cast. the cruise is too MUCH. by contrast all of these little broken up mini-events, a day here and there with "luncheon"(you just know is a rubber-chicken special)and maybe attended by a couple of(tertiary)actors is just too LITTLE to make it worth the time and effort.


I don't trek out to LA when it's their year. I can't justify that expense to hear some fan ask lara parker some obscure plot detail from half a century ago or have kls try and pitch me her latest literary masterwork. but if it's "in town" so to speak it's an amusing(if slightly exhausting)way to spend a weekend and pick up a few trinkets.

it is what it is. the format or location doesn't need to be fresh or imaginative for my personal purposes.

I used to wonder if eve's black chiffon wasn't a recycling of liz's gown-and-jewels getup from episode one. minus the jewels...


did we determine awhile back whether or not it was? marie was a good deal taller than joan.