Dark Shadows

A while back, I covered ABC soaps, which existed in a pocket reality unconnected to the TVCU.  One ABC soap I didn't cover, because it wasn't connected to the others, but was indeed connected to the TVCU I said I'd get to later on, and now, it's later on.  And that soap was Dark Shadows.

Wait, what?  Dark Shadows a daytime soap opera?  Yup, that's right.  People don't really think about it now, but Dark Shadows aired during the ABC daytime soap block, in what was a very unusual type of soap.  But yes, Dark Shadows was aimed at bored housewives.  (Hey, Doctor Who was a children's program.)

ANNO DRACULA (SERIES BY KIM NEWMAN)

Release Date: 1992 - 2013 (so far) [Setting is 1888 -1991 (so far)]

Series: Anno Dracula

Horror Crosses: Dracula (novel); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Invisible Man (novel); The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Vampyre; Varney the Vampire; The Soft Whisper of the Dead; They Thirst; Hotel Transylvania; The Black Castle; The Vampire Tapestry; Stephen King Universe; Carmilla; Good Lady Ducayne; The Tomb of Sarah; Ken’s Mystery; The Mysterious Stranger (story); The True Story of a Vampire; Carnacki Ghost Finder; Black Sabbath; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Interview with a Vampire (Anne Rice Vampire Lestat series); The Werewolves of London (Brian Stableford); Count Yorga; The Fearless Vampire Killers; Brides of Dracula; Vampire Circus; Dracula (Universal); Dark Shadows; El Vampiro; Black Sunday; Martin (George A. Romero film); Kolchak the Night Stalker; Blacula; Nosferatu; Kiss of the Vampire; Mr. Vampire; Blood of the Vampire; Daughters of Darkness; Dracula (Hammer); Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos; Averoigne; Grave of the Vampire/Seed of Terror; Hellraiser; Alraune; The Black Cat (film); Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural; The Vampire Thrills; Faustine; Near Dark; Forever Knight; Fright Night; The House of Dracula (novel by R. Chetwynd-Hayes); Anak Pontianak; Necroscope; Revelations in Black; The Dragon Waiting; The Bloody Pit of Horror/The Crimson Executioner; The Playgirls and the Vampire; The Niece of the Vampire/Fangs of the Vampire; The Phantom of the Opera; Incense for the Damned/Bloodsuckers; Addams Family (television); Frankenstein (Universal); The Monkey’s Paw; Three Mothers trilogy; Toby Dammit; The Exorcist; Cave of the Living Dead; The Golem (1920 film); The Old Dark House; Cat People; Black Magic (film); Spirits of the Dead; Les Vampires; The Awful Doctor Orloff; A Bucket of Blood; Those Who Hunt By Night/Immortal Blood/Traveling with the Dead; The Hunger; Fevre Dream; Empire of Fear; Dr. Blood’s Coffin; The Vampire’s Ghost; The Horrible Sexy Vampire; Mark of the Vampire; Vampire (1979); Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Gray; El Hombre Lobo; Curse of the Undead; Circus of Horrors; The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus; Twice Bitten/Vampire Hookers; The Lost Boys; Deathmaster; Velvet Vampire; I, Vampire; Nancy Baker’s Vampire Stories; Sunglasses After Dark; Vamps (Vertigo Comics); Blade; Scooby-Doo; Hellboy; Nocturna; Rosemary’s Baby; American Psycho; Lost Souls; Elvira; Rosemary’s Baby; The Films of Tarantino and Rodriguez; Light at the End; Andy Warhol’s Dracula/Blood for Dracula; Geek Maggot Bingo; Daughter of Darkness; Nightmare in Blood; Madhouse; Vampire Junction/Vanitas; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Shadowman; Werewolf of London; Little Shop of Horrors; Texas Chainsaw Massacre; The Howling; Gremlins; Suckers: Bleeding London Dry; Desire the Vampire/I Desire; The Creature Commandos; The Vampire (1957); The Vampire (Sydney Horler)

Non-Horror Crosses: Too numerous to list.

The Story: In 1888, during the events of Bram Stoker’s novel, events diverge and Dracula marries Queen Victoria, causing a major alteration in the socio-political world for the next 125 years and beyond.

Notes: This is a divergent timeline, but not a parallel universe. In my theory, a parallel universe is created at the dawn of time at the same time as the main universe and other parallel universes. They may evolve similarly, but they are separate. Meanwhile, each universe has a main timeline, and at each moment, there are an infinite number of divergent timelines created off of the main timeline. When thinking of divergent timelines, try picturing a fork in the road. Both paths lead in different directions, but they both start at the same point, and once were the same road. The Anno Dracula timeline has shown to be an alternate timeline of the main Horror Universe in several other entries in this reference guide. Because it’s a divergent timeline, the above horror crosses, though depicted in an alternate manner, should still count for inclusions in the Horror Universe. Some of the above crossed series are already in, and the others are brought in via this crossover series despite being an alternate timeline series. For the record, the complete Anno Dracula series (thus far) consists of Anno Dracula, the Bloody Red Baron: Anno Dracula 1918, Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959 (aka Dracula Cha Cha Cha), Coppola’s Dracula (from the Mammoth Book of Dracula), Castle in the Desert: Anno Dracula 1977, Andy Warhol’s Dracula: Anno Dracula 1978 - 1979 (from the Mammoth Book of Vampires), Who Dares Wins: Anno Dracula 1980, The Other Side of Midnight (from Vampire Sextette), You are the Wind Beneath My Wings: Anno Dracula 1984) and Johnny Alucard.

PHOENIX RISING (NOVEL BY PIP BALLANTINE AND TEE MORRIS)

Release Date: April 26, 2011 (Setting is 1892)

Series: Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences

Horror Crosses: Dark Shadows

Non-Horror Crosses: Warehouse 13 (see Notes); 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The Story: Agents of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences gather dangerous artifacts and keep them stored in a secret warehouse.

Notes: The authors did not intend this to be a crossover with Warehouse 13. But then James Bojaciuk wrote a blog post for the Television Crossover Universe regarding Warehouse 13 where he speculated that the Ministry was Warehouse 12, the previous warehouse that had been in London. Tee Morris came across the blog and commented “Your post popped up in my Google Alert and I have to say both Pip and I were thrilled beyond words at some of these amazing (if not frightening) crossovers you drew between Warehouse 13 and our first novel in this new steampunk series. We won't debunk all your parallels (please speculate, speculate, speculate...)” He then went on to debunk some of Bojaciuk’s claims, but did not debunk the ones listed above, including Warehouse 13. As for the others, Barnabas Collins is one of the noblemen contacted as part of the story’s conspiracy, and one of the agents destroys the Nautilus.

BARNABAS, QUENTIN AND DR. JEKYLL’S SON (NOVEL BY MARILYN ROSS)

Release Date: 1971 (Setting is 1908)

Series: Dark Shadows

Horror Crosses: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Story: Barnabas Collins meets the son of the infamous Dr. Jekyll, who wants to help find a cure for vampirism.

Notes: This story brings the unusual daytime soap opera Dark Shadows into the Horror Universe.

DARK SHADOWS (TELEVISION SERIES)

Release Date: June 27, 1966 - April 2, 1971 (Contemporary Setting with flashbacks and time travel thrown in)

Series: Dark Shadows

Horror Crosses: Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos

The Story: Soap opera with several dark, supernatural storylines, the most popular involving the vampire Barnabas Collins.

Notes: Starting in the fall of 1969, and running through 1970, there was a storyline involving the Leviathans, an alien snake like race meant to be connected to the Old Ones of the Lovecraft Mythos. This series was followed by two movies: House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows. This series was remade in 1991 as a new series, in 2005 as a TV Movie, and in 2012 as a theater released film. Due to its popularity, it’s been “non-cross” referenced numerous times in film and on television.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. NUMBER 17 THE HOLLOW CROWN AFFAIR (NOVEL BY DAVID MCDANIEL)

Release Date: 1969 (Contemporary Setting)

Series: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Horror Crosses: Dark Shadows

The Story: A mission brings our favorite agents Solo and Kuryakin to Collinsport, Maine.

Notes: Collinsport, Maine is the setting of the dark soap opera Dark Shadows. Sheriff Patterson from the series appears, and on a tree is spotted a carving that reads “Barnabas loves Josette”, likely there since the 1700s. The love story between Barnabas and Josette was a major plotline in Barnabas’ curse as a vampire. Incidentally, if you get nothing else from this book, I hope you’ve at least learned to stay out of Maine.

KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER CHRONICLES “INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE?” (SHORT STORY BY MARK DAWIDZIAK)

Release Date: 2005 (Setting is confusing so see notes)

Series: Kolchak the Night Stalker

Horror Crosses: Dark Shadows

The Story: Kolchak visit Collinsport Maine where he meets Barnabas Collins and his servant Willie Loomis.

Notes: Collins, Loomis, and Collinsport are from Dark Shadows. This story is set shortly after the final episode of Kolchak, which aired on March 28, 1975. And yet the story seems to take place in modern times with cell phones and laptops. It’s comic book and cartoon timeline logic, which doesn’t work for me in regards to the Horror Universe. I could of course place this in some divergent timeline where everything is time delayed by 30 years, but why take out a damn fine crossover like this from the main timeline? So I feel it’s best to include it in the main Horror Universe timeline and just ignore the contemporary references. But I leave it up to each reader to make their own call.

MORE THAN MORTAL (NOVEL BY MICK FARREN)

Release Date: August 1, 2001 (Contemporary Setting)

Series: Victor Renquist

Horror Crosses: Dennis Wheatley’s Duke de Richelieu; Varney the Vampire; Dark Shadows; The Vampyre

The Story: Rehnquist travels to England where it seems that the body of Merlin has been uncovered.

Notes: There are references to the Duke de Richelieu from Wheatley’s series of novels. Though the Duke de Richelieu was a title applied to many real historical figures, in this instance, the reference is specifically to a horror series. Varney, Barnabas Collins (of Dark Shadows) and Lord Ruthven (of the Vampyre) are mentioned as famed English vampires. Varney is said to have been impaled by a vampire slayer while Ruthven is said to have been captured by the church and burned in the sun. Of course, vampires and other monsters are killed all the time in the Horror Universe, and that never stops them from returning. Barnabas Collins was in fact born and raised in America, but his birth was in 1760, when America was still ruled by the British. Americans born before the American Revolution considered themselves to be British.

BLOOD SCARAB (FILM)

Release Date: 2008 (Contemporary Setting)

Series: Countess Dracula; Mummy’s Kiss

Horror Crosses: Carmilla; Dark Shadows; Donald F. Glut’s Interconnected Works; The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor

The Story: Dracula has recently married Elizabeth Bathory but perishes when he miscalculates sunrise due to Daylight Savings Time. Bathory enlists Renfield to find her a way for her to become immune to sunlight.

Notes: This film is a sequel to both the Countess Dracula and Mummy’s Kiss series of films by Glut. Renfield whines that Dracula should have married a Karnstein (as in Carmilla) or a Collins (referencing Dark Shadows). The Marshall Museum of Ancient History appears, which is a satellite of the Marshall Museum of Natural History from a multitude of Glut stories. A book Renfield researches is translated by Dr. Adam Spektor. Elizabeth Bathory was a real historical figure who is said to have bathed in human blood to maintain her youth. She has become a vampire in fiction, but because she is based on a real person, I don’t count her for crossover purposes.

DARK SHADOWS/VAMPIRELLA # 1 - 5 (DYNAMITE)

Release Date: August 1 - December 1, 2012 (Contemporary Setting)

Series: Dark Shadows; Vampirella

The Story: Barnabas has returned and encounters Vampi, who has come to Collinsport to pursue a killer.

Notes: This is the Barnabas from the original macabre daytime soap and not from any of the reboots/remakes.

DARK SHADOWS: THE DARKEST SHADOW (AUDIO DRAMA)

Release Date: June 30, 2014 (Contemporary Setting)

Series: Dark Shadows

Horror Crosses: The Picture of Dorian Gray; Confessions of Dorian Gray

The Story: Amanda gets a part playing herself in a movie about the events of the past at Collinsport.

Notes: This audio drama is from the folks that brought us the Confessions of Dorian Gray. They have created a story that combines two of their audio series.