Dark Shadows The Revival Series Review

Dark Shadows The Revival Series is a Gothic Soap Opera about a 200 year old Vampire named Barnabas Collins (Ben Cross). He is awakened by The Collins house handy man named Willy Loomis (Jim Fyfe) who is acted very well by Jim Fyfe.

This version of Willie Loomis differs from the original series one, because he is portrayed as either being a bit slow or brain damaged from too much alcohol abuse. He awakens Barnabas Collins from his 200-year-old stupor trying to steal The Collins Family's riches in the tomb.

Barnabas turns him into his personal ghoul/servant. Soon after Barnabas makes himself welcomed at the Collins Mansion saying he is a descendant of the original Barnabas. He falls in love with Victoria Winters (Joanna Going) immediately noticing the resemblance to his beloved Josette Du Pres Collins of 200 years ago.

Victoria Winters is the home school teacher and a babysitter for the troubled boy David Collins (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who I first saw in this series as an actor. The boy's father Roger Collins (Roy Thinnes) is very abusive to Willie Loomis and is harsh towards Mrs. Winters.

He also is having an affair with Maggie Evans (Ely Pouget) who has psychic abilities. The murders start happening beginning with Barnabas quenching his blood lust on a local girl in the town's popular hangout "The Blue Whale." He also feeds on the girlfriend of Joe Haskell (Michael T. Weiss).

His girlfriend Daphne Collins (Rebecca Staab) is soon bitten by Barnabas and in turn she bites Joe but he isn't converted because she is killed in the process by the Police and Professor Michael Woodard (�Stefan Gierasch). Who along with his friend Dr. Julia Hoffman (Barbara Steele) knows a thing or two about Vampires.

Soon after Dr. Julia Hoffman betrays Barnabas during the treatments to Cure his vampirism by reducing the potency of the solution. Barnabas becomes aware of this, as he becomes an extremely old Vampire. He soon attacks Joe Haskell's new love Carolyn Stoddard (Barbara Blackburn).

He converts her into his vampire bride in turn restoring himself back to a normal vampire. At the costume ball The Dark Shadows Collinswood main cast has a séance after everyone becomes aware of strange happenings like the repeated appearance of Barnabas young sister's ghost Sarah Collins.

Veronica Lauren who was a child actress in the 1990's plays her. She appeared in such films as Forever Young and Homeward Bound. The cast shifts to their past selves after the séance in which a (Phyllis Wicke) servant girl/teacher of Collins family children gets brought into present day. Victoria Winters is sent back in time to 1700's Collinswood.

The past self of Willie Loomis Mom (Mrs. Johnson) finds Victoria to be strange and suspects her of being a witch. She is soon sent to Rev. Trask played rather creepily by Roy Thinnes.

She is locked up and tried all the while Barnabas is soon cursed with Vampirism as he is punished by the Voodoo practicing witch Angelíque for spurning her. She is played rather sexily by the beautiful Lysette Anthony. Her French accent is hot stuff.

The series ends with Victoria being brought back to the present and with a cliff-hanger of Angelíque in the present possessing one of the cast members.

I have only partly seen the original Dark Shadows with the use of my NetFlix account. The new series is still faithful to the original albeit more gothic and graphic in detail. Especially in a very terrifying scene which is the stuff of nightmares with Angelíque's evil spirit conjuring up a vampiric version of Josette and then she bites Barnabas and blood is rolling down his neck.

The acting is a bit corny and bad in places especially with Joe Haskell/Peter Bradford's characters. Adrian Paul of Highlander Fame makes an appearance in the series in one of his first roles.

I think Ben Cross did a good job as Barnabas Collins although it is hard to believe the Joanna Goings character Victoria Winters would be interested in him since he is so old and mature looking. I assume he just hypnotized her. My box set of The Revival series spans 3 Disc's and it only cost me 12.49 when I bought it on Amazon.com in 2011.

I really enjoyed watching the series when it first appeared on TV in 1991 and re-watching the series makes me wish it was completed. I recommend this to fans of the original and people who like Vampire stories. You can get the box set rather cheaply on Amazon.com for 14.99. I believe that's the newly packaged version.

If you want to read some more of my reviews come to my website at http://theeradicatorreviews.com/ You can check out trailers for the individual movie reviews that I do as well.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Randy_Wheaton