I hope we can keep this as a thread separate from the Shadowgram announcement about this film.
This is more than a "movie with DS clips"
First, about the clips:
The film is set in 1978-79, when only the first Barnabas year was in syndication. Two clips are seen onscreen from 1795:
1. Abigail discovering Barnabas' coffin in the Old House basement.
2. Suki Forbes being attacked by the bat.
The color opening credits are seen, and the opening theme is heard in it's entirety twice.
One scene from the film ends with a DS music cue.
Though all are seen onscreen, Frid, Clarice & Jane Draper
get no screen credit.
The closing credits say: Dark Shadows Courtesy of Dan Curtis Prods., nothing more.
The film itself is brilliant.
It's themes of mental illness hit close to home for me, as I've lived with bi-polar disease most of my life. (I'm now taking meds & symptom free)
The film effectively shows how the illness of one~how being around someone who's sick~ can cause symptons of illness to appear in others.
But it also shows that it's possible to come out of such situations and to live a good life, as Augustine Burroughs, whose autobiography this film is based on, and his foster Mom Agnes (Jill Clayburgh, whose character watches DS) did.
The film is played for dark laughs, which is good.
Had the film been played seriously, without humor, it would have been utterly unpleasent, even impossible, to watch.
The humor made the illnesses of the Annette Benning, Brian Cox & Joseph Fiennes characters palatable.
The film is therefore hilariously funny but also sad, deeply moving, and, as we learn the ultimate fates of Burroughs & Agnes, ultimately triumphant.
Running with Scissors is an important, Oscar worthy work, though the DS fan in me found the clips great fun!
David
