Quentin Collins (David Selby) and his young wife Tracy (Kate Jackson) have just inherited the sprawling gothic estate of Collinwood, complete with weird housekeeper, Carlotta (Grayson Hall). Quentin starts getting strange dreams, seeing things, and begins to stare off into nothing. He just might be the reincarnation of Charles Collins. Years ago Charles’s lover and sister-in-law, Angelique Collins, was hung as a witch and her spirit wants to bring Charles back.
Light piano music. Staring. More light piano music (with harmonica). More staring. A dream. Tense music. More staring. Light piano music. A violent outburst. Light piano music. Staring.
That’s about it for an hour and a half. If you like light piano music and staring, then this is your film. If not, you are going to be bored. The acting isn’t great, the cinematography is low rent, and the editing is jerky, but those would only be problems if there was something other than the inappropriate piano music and staring.
Poor Kate Jackson gets stuck with the victim-wife role. She looks frightened a lot and asks, “What’s wrong?” She also is very forgiving of occasionally being strangled. Then there are a pair of friends who just happen to move in next door. They also ask if something is wrong, because that question can never be asked too often.
The film is the second spin-off feature from the Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows. While the first, House of Dark Shadows, was more or less a retelling of seasons 2 & 3 of the series, Night of Dark Shadows has a more tenuous connection. Characters have been changed around: Quentin was a werewolf in the show and Angelique’s storyline had to do with the vampire Barnabas Collins, who is absent from this film.
Forty minutes of the finished film was cut at the insistence of the studio, with the director given only one day to complete the work. Dark Shadows fan have valiantly claimed that if only that footage was returned than the film would become at least watchable. But no. The cuts might be responsible for the jumps and sudden breaks in the soundtrack, but it makes sense as is, and no one needs another scene of staring. The film plods along in its current form. The last thing it needs is to be longer.