Monday, November 13, 2017

Dark Shadows Episode 361 - 11/13/67

Amazon Prime members can stream today's episode free!

Sarah says she knows who Julia is, and what she did to Dr. Woodard. Julia explains it was Barnabas, and Sarah says she helped him, and she shouldn't have. Sarah says she liked Dr. Woodard. Julia asks if she'll protect her if Barnabas tries to harm her. Sarah says she has to go, and disappears. Julia calls for Sarah, and finds herself locked in the mausoleum.


She calls for help, hoping the caretaker will hear her. She goes to light a cigarette and hears the sound of a man sobbing. She tries to convince herself that it was the wind, when she hears a woman's shrieking laughter. She leans on the wall by Sarah's crypt and discovers blood oozing down the wall. She hears the mausoleum door open, and approaching it slowly, she makes her way out.


Julia returns to Collinwood and calls for Mrs. Stoddard. Carolyn comes out and says her mother is in Bangor. She asks about Roger and she says he's out. Julia asks if they're alone with Mrs. Johnson, and Carolyn tells her that it's Mrs. Johnson's night off, and she's about to leave so Julia will be all alone. Julia notices there's no longer any blood on her hands. She asks Carolyn not to go, but she refuses, telling Julia she'll be all alone in the house.


Julia sits down to play solitaire, and is distracted by noises outside. The windows are blown open, and she blames the wind as she closes them. The front doors swing open, and she looks to see if Roger or Carolyn returned. Again, she believes it must have been the wind. She approaches the fireplace, and the flames within flare up.


At first she thinks that Barnabas is torturing her, and then she thinks it's Dave coming back to haunt her. London Bridge plays on the piano, and she slams the lid covering the keys shut. She yells out that she's not afraid, when she sees a silhouetted figure by the window.



Upstairs, Julia runs into her room where she thinks she'll be safe. The lights don't go off, but Julia acts as if they did. She tries to leave but the door to her room is stuck. She calls out for help. She tries the phone, but it doesn't work. She lights a candle and it is blown out. She sees a ghost near the window, and she calls out asking if it's Dave, and pleads to be left alone.


The phone rings, and she answers it, she hears Dave's voice telling her that she will die soon. After hanging up, she hears sounds outside her door.


Our thoughts
                                                               
John: I don't know that Grayson Hall was built for putting on a one-man show. As her husband, writer Sam Hall pointed out in a DVD extra, she has a tendency to overact. He wasn't kidding!


Christine: I think her overacting made what could have been an otherwise dull episode entertaining to watch and surely a fright fest for the kiddies. I'm surprised you failed to appreciate our first real sign of gore on the show with the copious amounts of blood oozing from Sarah's grave. How cool was that?

John: So do you think someone was asleep at the wheel when it came to the lighting for the episode? She was clearly playing as if there was none, despite the set being lit normally throughout the entire bedroom scene. I'll bet Dan Curtis was not pleased when he saw the episode. 

Christine: Most definitely. The lamps went out without any change in the lighting. It would have been much scarier had she actually been getting a phone call from Dave in the dark.


John: What's with the crazy camera tricks when Julia watches her door? Was she smoking regular cigarettes?

Christine: It may indicate her descent into madness, especially since the scene is reversed, or it could be she's been attending Dr. Leary's lectures.



John: It's worth noting that at this point, they were advertising that coming this Friday we'll be taking a trip to the past with Victoria Winters to learn the secret of the chained coffin!



4 comments:

Paul Haney said...

A little bit of Grayson Hall goes a long way. I agree that we got an overdose of hysterics with this episode. The blood and the LSD door effects were cool enough to compensate for the lighting problems.

No spoilers here, but let's just say that by the end of this week the series will take a most interesting turn indeed.

Dave Dykema said...

I feel this is the worst episode of the series to date. There's hardly any dialogue. It's just Dr. Hoffman's "thoughts" and major overacting. I bet timing that script was a bit** because of the almost lack of dialogue, just directions. Yes, the blood was cool, although it looks purple.

Jeff Baker said...

Wow! An episode redolent of "the Sixties." (I was seven years old; these effects popped up on a few shows!)

Anonymous said...

Unsure if this is the worst ep. Most memorable though. Babe Barrett is beautiful to look at!