Episode 361 lies entirely in Julia's hands as she's terrorised at night by various spectres, including the murderer Dr Woodard and the ever-sinister presence of Barnabas. It's a tour-de-force for Hall, who steps up to the plate, and in terms of format it reminded me of the nightmarish sequences featuring a solitary Bruce Campbell in EVIL DEAD 2.
3 Reviews
Blood, oozing off the wall!
mark.waltz24 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
It's obvious why preteen boys used to wait outside of the Dark Shadows studio for Grayson Hall to come out to get her autograph. As Dr. Julia Hoffman, she was like a wacky old aunt who's this that you couldn't wait for. With cigarette in hand and blood dripping off the wall, Hall is delightfully campy and over-the-top as she deals with the fact that she's locked in the Krypt after Sarah disappears. There's a crying woman (none other than Mrs. Fish, Florence Stanley) as well as a screaming voice, and it's obvious that Julia is very frightened. She arrives home only have find Carolyn there, and Carolyn is leaving. There are more voices while she's alone in the house, and her efforts to play Solitaire to get her mind off of her experience so completely interrupted as windows and doors suddenly open, with no explanation other than the wind. A lot of Hall's performance is voice over, and you can definitely see the efforts to drive her mad could work.
Nobody back in 1967 expected subtlety on "Dark Shadows", and when Julia yells to the wind that she's not afraid, you know she protests too much. Once again, this is pretty much a one-woman show for Julia, although you also get the spirit of Dr. Dave Woodard, and with this storyline, I want to play the Julia Hoffman drinking game where you take a slug every time she either screams or yells out help. This is very reminiscent of the barnstorming plays of an earlier time when melodramas like this were commonplace, and of course, there's a thunderstorm background. Kids who just celebrated Halloween in 1967, got a continued taste of it through this show, and if I were to have nightmares over what I had just watched, I think I would be giggling as well.
Nobody back in 1967 expected subtlety on "Dark Shadows", and when Julia yells to the wind that she's not afraid, you know she protests too much. Once again, this is pretty much a one-woman show for Julia, although you also get the spirit of Dr. Dave Woodard, and with this storyline, I want to play the Julia Hoffman drinking game where you take a slug every time she either screams or yells out help. This is very reminiscent of the barnstorming plays of an earlier time when melodramas like this were commonplace, and of course, there's a thunderstorm background. Kids who just celebrated Halloween in 1967, got a continued taste of it through this show, and if I were to have nightmares over what I had just watched, I think I would be giggling as well.
This is the first review I've done for DS!
startrekfan-417 May 2021
This may well be #1 In all-time worst episodes of any TV series ever made! Grayson Hall just isn't a good actress, and this is all hers! She overacts in anything that she's done in DS and this is no exception! They really needed to break up the scenes with something, ANYTHING, to get the camera off of her! Sad, too, because this is a really great series! Not sure I'm going to buy and watch the rest of the series(I've gotten set 1-7 so far)! This needs to get better very quickly!
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