One day, Dan Curtis had a terrible dream about a mysterious girl on a train, shrouded in a halo of terrible secrets. The sinister atmosphere of the fleeing stranger, traveling with her somewhere, coupled with a sense of danger, had a strong influence on the director, who could not forget the exciting dream. Having shared it with his wife, having discussed a nightmare, Curtis realized that he was filled with ideas for a film in which he would convey a symbiosis of both frightening and alluring secrets. The studio approved the idea in a multi-part format with a broadcast for adults and adolescents. The show began with an episode introducing the viewer to a girl who came to work in Collinwood - a Gothic mansion belonging to the Collins family. The story immediately took the viewer into circulation with a heap of intrigues, secrets, suspicions, strained relationships between the characters that make up a rich surname and their acquaintances. The plot, despite the soap opera format, was intriguing, borrowing ideas from various classics, where one could see allusions to the stories of Jane Eyre and Monte Cristo. Time passed, having passed two hundred episodes, the project stalled. Family twists and turns with revenge and endless introductions of new characters began to tire the audience, so the series was decided to stop. Dan Curtis realized that the spirit of his nightmare he realized on the screen only partially, coming to a radical decision to implement horror! Earlier in the film there were only rare murders, a ghost appeared modestly, and after learning about the closure of the project, its author turned it into a creative carte blanche, stunning the viewer by introducing into the Collins family a supernatural secret in the form of a vampire ancestor locked in a coffin! The former Gothic entourage harmoniously took a new round of the story, as if it was the mystical detail that was missing from the series, which in an instant turned into a hit that gained a cult status in the history of American television. The bright idea with vampires imbued with fresh blood outlived his project, demonstratively changed the black and white film to expensive color. The rating jumped, the release of books began, a thousand new episodes were waiting in front, a multi-part remake will be released in twenty years, and after another two dozen Tim Burton will shoot a full-length version of the film.
This is the background of the picture in question, which is a spin-off of the series. During his existence, he told a lot of stories, weaving them into the fictional Collins family. Starting with vampires, it went on and on: werewolves, witches, curses, ghosts, monsters, time travel, allusions to the works of Henry James, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe... In the zenith of the glory of the project, which pleased the viewer with a variety of shades of horror, Curtis began shooting a full-length film dedicated to Barnab Collins - a vampire whose appearance brought the series back to life, infusion of fresh blood in the literal and figurative sense. It was an interesting theme for the director, which is one of the key pillars of the genre, born of folk tales and legends. The author in some ways reshooted a small part of the series, doing it boldly, not caring about television ratings, splashing on the screen scarlet blood as much as you like and sparing the characters to strengthen the unspoken interpretation of the famous work of Bram Stoker. Here the subjects of the curse of immortality are touched upon, when an aristocrat loses his beloved, being eternally burdened with this burden, turning into a monster. The inability to find the joy of full being is served through the metaphor of the destructive daylight and hardening of all living things to drink the blood of others until the death of the unfortunate or his transformation into a kind of gray ghost of night, wandering among the coffins. A few years later, Curtis fully filmed “Dracula”, and then he has to shift the book motifs on the basis of the popular series and characters from it. The key ghoul appears as a bloodthirsty monster, a cunning intriguer, a mysterious romantic and a tragic sufferer at the same time, catering to the tastes of a wide audience.
The director does not hit the mud face, withstanding the necessary atmosphere of modern Gothic, when instead of family treasures in a locked coffin was found a sleeping vampire with all the ensuing. Barnaba Collins will acquire not only a bloodsucker cape, but also a submissive henchman who returned after death as a beauty, a vigilant professor, a fatal object of sighing, resembling a lost lover, and will make various tricks, rubbing into trust or threatening. The film fills the atmosphere of the firstborn vampires, as they are captured in the books in their golden age, being the living dead, predatory sparkling eyes on pale faces. They, who did not find peace with evil spirits – those very “dark shadows” of former people, remained in the midst of life and death to call with a hypnotic look to themselves in the sad darkness of the once loved ones and relatives. Add to this a proper design of cold fog, a gloomy mansion of the old America, landscapes of sullen woods, night fields, costumes, decoration, and we get an excellent visual range, impeccably complementing the basis with the Gothic vampire horror story and romance.
Being successful at the time of release, the tape still has drawbacks, which will mainly be noted by the viewer who is not familiar with the serial twists and turns. The connection with the television progenitor is already very strong, especially expressed in the actors who were not properly disclosed. Characters are quickly introduced into the story or flash once in order to play cameos and return to parallel shooting in the series. It is difficult to grasp all the motives for our actions. Who is sharpening his teeth on whom, by what circumstances, what kind of family connection there is for everyone or a long-standing friendship with hostility - all this runs by the way. Many are perceived as brunette and blonde or boyfriend blonde or friend dark. In addition, a very clumsy storyline with the police. It is a strange behavior of the sheriff and his subordinates to participate in the roundup of vampires, driving aspen stakes without regard to justice or doubting the legend of ghouls, as if it is the nineteenth century and everything is happening in a remote Transylvanian village.
That's the movie. For a complete understanding of the characters and their relationships, it is advisable to have an impressive series watched or at least gather information about it. However, the picture, having a serial basis and manner of shooting, goes beyond the specifics characteristic of television, having a laudable visual range, demonstrating atmospheric modern Gothic with all the attributes of an old-school vampire film. In addition, it is convenient to get acquainted with the story of Barnaba Collins, known in the West, in a standard hour and a half, than to watch several seasons with the endless collapse and resurrection of this TV villain again and again.
6 out of 10