DS Redux: Your Vision?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Actually, Frid has often joked about how cramped he felt in Barnabas' coffin because he's 6 feet tall and the coffin was too short for him.    But again we're getting OT. 

[Zahir]

No way that man was six feet tall.  No way.   

But anyway--my earlier post suggested doing something a la Rappacinni's Daughter for a new DS.  Methinks there are loads of other, untapped sources of supernatural plotlines.  DS originally borrowed from Dracula (becoming, ironically, the template for at least two further versions of that tale), from Frankenstein and H.P.Lovecraft, as well as Jane Eyre and Turn of the Screw.

For example...

But what about Carmilla?  Suppose instead of a male vampire seeking to recreate his long-lost love, we had a female vampire obsessed/in love with a young woman and trying not to feed on her too much?  I always thought, alas, that [spoiler]Roxanne turned out to be a fairly dull vampire.  No relationship of any kind with her victims, unlike Barnabas or Angelique or even Tom Jennings.  Sadly, the kind of vampire Dan Curtis seemed to like.   [/spoiler]

Or what about a horror icon that has become really popular in Japan?  I'm speaking of the Evil Little Girl, seen in films like Ringu (remade in America with Daveigh Chase, titled The Ring).  Strangely powerful, seemingly unstoppable, and extremely destructive.  Her "look" is of a slender girl in a white dress, with long black hair that obscures her face.  Think of a vengeful, insane Sarah Collins.     In fact, it could be Sarah Collins--or some other child who died/suffered at Collinwood.  Odds are there were plenty (recall we know next-to-nothing of what happened between 1841 and 1897-- or 1897 and 1967).

What does anyone else think?

[Taeylor Collins]

One part of my vision is seeing Barnabas bite someone (on screen) of the same sex.  I was looking at my old DS 1991 Comics today and looking at Barnabas drinking from another male, well it was extremely erotic to say the least.  I don't want to get to risque because I know we have younger posters.  I just wanted to add that.  It would be cool to see a girl vampire bite another girl on screen as well.  It would be very progressive.  I would just drop dead in the theater if I got to see Johnny Depp bite another male.  So maybe it's best he doesn't since I desire to live! 

[GooberCollins]

Despite the writers' constant assertions of "males never bite males, females never bite females," it happened a few times on the original show, such as [spoiler]Barnabas biting Nathan and Roxanne biting Maggie[/spoiler], so it actually wouldn't be new territory for DS.

[Taeylor Collins]

That is why I said I would like to see it (on screen) Goober. And that WOULD be new territory for Dark Shadows!

[Zahir]

Yeah, well also [spoiler]Barnabas bit Willie (both of them) and Sandor.  And that guy in 1897, can't remember his name.  With the mustache. [/spoiler]

I agree, though, that would be terribly erotic either way.  As the series went on, it seemed to me that the biting did get more sensual.  Certainly Carolyn in PT couldn't wait to feel those fangs again, and she wasn't the only one!

Curiously, a (former) friend in San Francisco who saw Interview With The Vampire once claimed that the filmmakers had taken all the homoeroticism out of that story.  I still don't have any idea what he meant.  Tom Cruise clutching Brad Pitt and sucking the blood out his throat sure looked homoerotic to me!  Not to mention the way Lestat seduced that gorgeous young kid he chowed down on--!

Mind you, I don't see Barnabas doing anything like that.  At least not the character we know.  But in a reborn DS, we might see something like that and I for one think it'd be a good idea.

Oh, and if only it were a cable show, things could get really steamy...!   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

We did see Barnabas full-on attack a man in the '91 series. Though it was hardly in the same fashion as we saw his attacks on women. Hardly! And he really had no choice but to attack the man because of what he'd witnessed. But that is more than was ever depicted on the original show. And I seriously doubt that if it's necessitated in the plot, the new film would back away from depicting Barnabas attacking a man.

[GooberCollins]

I agree that its inclusion is a strong possibility. Many modern vampire films include some degree of homoeroticism; I highly doubt that Tim Burton would shy away from it.

And I didn't mention Willie earlier because, as far as I remember, Barnabas never bit him on the neck - he merely *cough* drained his arm of blood.

[Zahir]

Yeah, but [spoiler]he did bite PT William Loomis on the neck.[/spoiler]

Mind  you, he also [spoiler]bit Willie, in the neck, in the 1991 Revival.  But that never made a lot of sense to me.  He's been sealed in his coffin how long?  Wouldn't he have been hungry enough to drain Willie to the last drop?  Or did Willie just not taste that good?  Can you imagine just how bad he must have tasted that Barnabas stopped and said "Yech!  I may be starving but I'll go find a meal elsewhere."[/spoiler]

Not that any of this was particularly erotic.

[MagnusTrask]

I thought we saw Barnabas biting males, and other vampires doing so in others shows and films.  Nothing about that ever seemed at all unusual or racy to me, but then, I always thought it was the 60s/70s sex obsession in all media and in all situations that gave rise to the idea that there was anything sexual about vampires feeding, in the first place.

[Nancy]

No way that man was six feet tall.  No way.   

Yes, I'm afraid so . . JF was six feet tall (probably has shrunk since as we do when we age). It even says said so on his driver's license the last time I saw it a few years ago when he was about to renew it.  I had gone with him to see what the motor vehicle business was like in Canada. 

Nancy

[MagnusTrask]

He never seemed tall to me really, but I am 6 feet or half an inch short of it.   Anyway, he probably seems more imposing and larger in storylines where he has power and is not a victim.   He seems small in 1968 when he's being pushed around and given orders, and knocked to the floor, and scolded by Julia.  When he gets back from Wyndcliffe he's a new man as I've realized just now in my viewing.   I think he's integrated his past and present and has located his moral center and the will to put it into action in the world, using the strength of his knowledge and past experiences.   If asked a viewer might conclude that he put on a little height at Wyndcliffe.

[Nelson Collins]

Ben Cross was, no offense meant, too short to play Barnabas. 

Possibly, but it might have been more historically accurate.  People on the whole were shorter in the 18th century than now. 

One of my favorite book series are the Saint Germain chronicles by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and one of the things I love about her series is that her 4000 year old vampire Le Comte de Saint Germain, is described as a tall man in the book set in Nero's Rome, but in moderns times is actually quite short.

[Nelson Collins]

I am sure half the board will not agree with me but I thought Ben Cross was very elegant.

I agree he was elegant and while in the main, I was satisfied with his portrayal, my only real criticism would be that he tended to chew the scenery as much as he chew the ingenues' necks, especially when he had the contacts and the fangs in...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Ben Cross was, no offense meant, too short to play Barnabas.

Possibly, but it might have been more historically accurate.  People on the whole were shorter in the 18th century than now.

Realistically, though, Cross is 5' 11" - only an inch shorter than Frid. And Depp is 5' 10". And when it comes to height, one or two inches one way or the other really isn't all that much.