Please don’t compare Dark Shadows to Twilight

I try very hard not to invoke Twilight if at all possible.



Then again, the wildly popular franchise has somehow managed to keep horror in the public consciousness – even if I personally don’t consider the Twilight flicks to be true horror. 



Of course, if it’s helping keep the genre alive, and encouraging young people to read, more power to it. And although from what I understand, the books are somewhat long-winded and not exactly well written. Still, Stephanie Meyer accomplished what every writer dreams of: a major best-seller that’s set her up for life.

 

With vampires, just like zombies, one size does not fit all, and TheWrap just ran a story calling Dark Shadows “the original Twilight.” How anyone drew that conclusion was beyond me, so I dipped into the story, and Kimberly Potts considers Shadows “a vampire love story” that kept teens and younger children watching every day. 



This love star is between old vampire Barnabas Collins, and Maggie Evans, and as Potts continues, in order for Collins to be reunited with his long lost love Josette, “it meant that he was dooming Maggie to the same eternal curse that he lived under. It’s essentially Twilight.”

 

Kathryn Leigh Scott, who starred on the show, also said, “We were way ahead of the curve,” but at the same time, quite a few vampire stories have similar romantic plots in them like this, usually about a creature of  the night trying to bring his bride back to life. 

Don’t forget – the original 1931 Dracula was billed as a love story because realistic horror was a brand new concept, and Universal had no idea how to market it.

 

The original Dark Shadows show is also back on DVD, with a 131 DVD box set featuring all 1,225 episodes in a special padded coffin box, which will be released on July 10, 2012. 

The price for the entire series? $599.98 list, $539.98 discounted through Amazon.com. Also new on DVD, and more reasonably priced are Dark Shadows: Best of Barnabas, and Dark Shadows: Fan Favorites, both of which go for $14.98 list.