Why Dark Shadows Scared the Hell Out of Us

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Why Dark Shadows Scared the Hell Out of Us

The funny thing is, as much as I love DS, I can't say that it has ever really scared me.

I also wonder when, as the author asserts, Vicki actually slipped into being evil?  

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Maybe he's onto something...  Maybe all of those "I don't understand" moments were really just cover-ups.  Perhaps Vicki knew all along what was going down at Collinwood and just chose to ignore it...  Now there's a new way to watch the show.  

[Gerard]

The ghost of Jeremiah scared me you-know-whatless when I was a kid.  That lumbering, bandaged, bloodied, face-blown-off thing caused me to either look away or cover my eyes.

Gerard

[petofi]

In 1969, I remember being scared by the image of Evan Hanley's mangled face through the bars of the Old House basement door!  I was being watched by my brother and his friend after school, and my mother was PO'd that I had been scared so badly.  She banned me from watching the show, but that only lasted maybe a week.  I was 9 years old.

Petofi - remembering Evan's ping-pong eyeball with fondness (now).

[PennyDreadful]

Barnabas and, to a lesser extent, Quentin's ghost scared the H-E- double hockey sticks out of me when I was wee.  Oh how I still savor the nightmares I had back then. 

[Taeylor Collins]

I can't say DS ever scared (except the 1991 version in the moments that made one jump [spoiler]ie. David jumping out or the rat[/spoiler]) but the Evan Hanley face sure disturbed me!  However, at 7 and 8 I was watching vampire movies with my aunt that had scenes like [spoiler]Carolyn's staking in HODS[/spoiler] so I guess that is why it is really hard to scare me. Per usual good to see  DS in the news!

[The Doctor and K9]

I was not allowed to watch, but I would occasionally sneak a peak. My parents weren't overly protective. I was only 6 in 1969. I was allowed to watch it in 1976, when I was 13.  I remember being terrified when they chained "Quentin" (that's how I incorrectly remember it) to the wall of a dungeon and he changed. He thrashed around for some time with these very loud snarls (incorrect again, the scene is brief). That scene haunted me for a long time.  I also got scared by the Lost in Space episode where Doctor Smith let out all the zoo animals (2 parter with Michael Rennie of Day the Earth Stood Still fame). 

[Mark Rainey]

When I was around eight or nine, there was a time that DS scared me, more for its overall effect than any particular scene or characters. There was a day in third grade that it snowed heavily, and we got out of school early, and I went to stay with a friend. We watched DS that afternoon, and that night, mental images of a menacing Barnabas Collins haunted me horribly, and I couldn't go to sleep. That day was the episode when Nathan Forbes shot Barnabas with a bolt from a crossbow but missed Barnabas's heart. That may be my fondest memory of DS ever.

[The Doctor and K9]

I also remember a day when my father was home sick.  I got home from school and for some obscure reason. He had DS on. It was the episode in which Liz is menaced by disembodied spirit hands. I had no idea who Quentin was then. It didn't scare me while it was on, but later that night I was pretty nervous. As with the werewolf incident, this scene is longer in my memory.

[onyx_treasure]

     Barnabas scared me so much when I was nine I used to sleep with the covers over my head so he could not get my neck.  When I saw the show again on the Sci-Fi channel, I was living in Maine.  I was watching on a foggy day and I felt a spooky chill while I watched.  Of course, my ninety year old  house had no insulation.

[Nancy]

The overall atmosphere creeped me out many times.  The glowers of Nicholas and Barnabas were intimidating (though not directed at me obviously) and Angelique could be menacing.

One day following the bricking up of Trask in 1795 my mother happened to be in the living room with me and wondered aloud if I should be watching such things.  She thought that scene was upsetting to hear and witness no matter how bad a person Trask was.  She relented and didn't stop me from watching the show. 

Nancy

[B.Collins]

well i wasn't around back when it was 1st on. my parents were though. my grandma my mom's mom. didn't watch it she used to watch a different soap back than. i forget which one? anyways, so my mom really never watched it. in fact she hates it since i became a fan. plus she picks on the bad acting. well so do i actually i poke fun at it as well. but i still love it.

when i watch it i do a little "MSTK3000" in some scenes when i see someone over acting or underacting or trying to act. & it just makes watching the show even more fun. he he. anyways, a few years ago i was watching it on old tapes i used to have. i had taped the entire show off Sci-Fi & i had to get rid of all 66 or however many VHS tapes i had? cause really the tapes wore out & got old. so that's why. anyways, in the scene when the pirates i believe tore uP Collin wood. before

Barnabas & Julia head back in time. from standard (1970) i had a nightmare that nite about that. out of all the stories i think the scariest & convincing that the show ever did was that & having the head in that case. it's just creepy.

let me also add that i'm saying this in the year (2010) & so a LOT of the show looks & feels less scary now in (2010) than it prolly would have back in the late 60's & Early 70's.  but those 2 are i think the scariest. let me also add that i didn't watch this as a kid for me to be scared at anything else. but as an adult. but thanxs though for sharing your memories with us.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

she picks on the bad acting

One can't help but wonder if, while her mom was watching her soaps, your mom ever paid attention to the acting on them? If so, she must have blocked them all out because the acting on other soaps was often quite terrible - much worse than the worst on DS. And that's pretty bad when one considers things like Geoffrey Scott's performances as Sky Rumson during Leviathans.  

when i see someone over acting

Believe it or not, much of what's interpreted as overacting today was dictated by the directors and DC to heighten the show. They wanted the scenes played that way. In fact, after rehearsals, notes would often come down from on high to bring "more" to the performances, not less.    It was definitely a style choice.

[B.Collins]

i know that. but when you have say "Jerry Lacy" if memory serves that's his right last name. he's gone over the top on some scenes. but he's a damn good actor & that makes the scene stronger.  if you look at the actress who played say "Buffy" she was TERRIBLE!  Chris P. i think did his best acting as Cyrus Longworth & his counter Part than he did as say Jeb. he was at his worst acting wise playing Jeb. in short his acting did improve in time. one actor that never gave a bad peformance is "David Selby" i can't recall him ever giving one. he's also my favorite actor off the show. & Character as well. what's funny is you are right about my mom. she used to watch soaps as well. daytime soaps i mean.  but she stopped watching them years ago when the children starting sleeping with the same people their parents were!  that's just NASTY!

anyways, one show that i did actually try & get into when "Sci-Fi Channel" aired it was "Passions" that show had NOT one good actor or actress on the entire show. now they may have given  better performances doing other stuff. i'm not denying that. but when they did the show it's simply aweful. one of the actors from it i read an interview he did & even he admitted he's surprised he even has a job cause he' s not that great of an actor. this was of course before the show was cancelled.

i think that took balls to admit that.  & as for the performance enchancement. i think it can work if the right actor or actress was told to. but i also think if they aren't that great at acting to begin with it can worsen the performance. Don Briscoe i think was a TERRIBLE Vampire i couldn't wait till he was staked.  he also did an unconvincing werewolf change but if he could play himself & not have to go through that he was a better actor. Nancy Berret i think is a great actress as well. but she had her weakness to. being frightned was one of them. sometimes when she cried it wasn't convincing either. but other than that her acting was simply brilliant. Louis Edmonds was ALWAYS Brilliant so telling him to go over the top i think would make his acting even better. in short i think for some people doing the show telling them to do just that didn't work simply cause they hadn't really done much or any other acting. therefore hadn't had enough work to improve on it.

but this is just one guys opinions. i think i've said this before when i said, i don't consider it a soap opera cause it really isn't. i think before Barnabas came on the show it was. but once they went supernatural & went all out. to me it doesn't feel like that. but at the end of the show with the Bramwell Storyline it did go back to being a soap. so as they said on the dvd set. i forget which one. it went full circle.

what do you think?

[IluvBarnabas]

Joe's dream before his unfortunate exit certainly scared the heck out of me. And seeing Barnabas's fangs and evil face out of an open door got a jolt out of me. Other than that, as much as I love DS, I can't say it ever scared me, though it did have its disturbing moments.

Vicki evil? What show was the author watching. It certainly wasn't DS. Though I would have loved an evil reincarnation of Vicky to have turned up sometime. But good old stubborn Dan Curtis wouldn't hear of it.