Thank you, Dark Shadows, for creating sexy vampires.
What it's about
Writer-director-producer Dan Curtis creates Gothic series Dark Shadows, unexpectedly shifting the way America treated the soap opera, the monsters, and horror as we know it today.
The take
While cable television didn’t have the same prestige as movies for decades, nevertheless the format garnered some influence, even then, with generations of viewers and filmmakers growing up in the medium. Dark Shadows is one such influential television show, and its journey from middling soap opera to groundbreaking drama is depicted in Master of Dark Shadows. Viewers totally unfamiliar with the 60s-70s program might only appreciate the film for its slice of media history, as the documentary takes a rather ordinary, interview-focused approach, but Master of Dark Shadows is clearly a tribute to Dan Curtis, the man behind the midday monsters, and the legions of fans it inadvertently garnered.
What stands out
Most of the runtime is dedicated to Dark Shadows, rather than Dan Curtis himself, but maybe that’s not a bad thing, considering the way everyone describes him with a terrible personality in the most polite way.
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