35 Years Later, the ’90s Remake of a Cult Classic Thriller Is Officially Free to Watch on YouTube

A young woman embarks on an unexpected journey. Despite the excitement and possibilities of her future, there’s also fear. She boards a train that will take her to a new home atop a stormy cliff at the edge of the sea, a place defined by the fog and its history. She’s a governess, and she’ll be responsible for teaching and caring for a wealthy boy.

This premise might sound like it’s from a classic Gothic story like Jane Eyre or The Turn of the Screw. But it’s actually from 1991’s Dark Shadows: The Revival, an NBC series that distilled the long-running original Dark Shadows soap opera into a 12-episode melodrama. It’s the best way to enter the world created by horror icon Dan Curtis, and it’s streaming in full on YouTube.

What is Dark Shadows about?

Image: NBC/Everett Collection

Dark Shadows: The Revival follows Victoria Winters (Joanna Going), a governess who takes a job in the fishing town of Collinsport, Maine. She’ll reside in Collinwood, a manor owned by the Collins family, a generations-old dynasty. As Victoria settles into her new position, the supernatural kicks in: the groundskeeper unknowingly awakens a malevolent creature, putting the whole town in danger.

Barnabas Collins is one of television’s most memorable creations. Introduced as a 200-year-old vampire, he became the unexpected center of the Dark Shadows franchise, and the star of Hollywood adaptations (including Tim Burton’s 2012 movie), novel tie-ins, and more.

Image: ABC

In the revival, Barnabas (Ben Cross) introduces himself to the family as a distant cousin from England, inviting them into his manor while stalking the town at night for new victims. He also develops a fixation on Victoria, who can’t help but be intrigued by him.

The original Dark Shadows played a key role in the way horror is now depicted on television. It pioneered daytime horror and introduced more complex supernatural creatures than audiences were used to. Still, it aired half-hour episodes every day and ran for six seasons, relying on the filler that soap operas are infamous for. ‘60s Barnabas was introduced nearly a year into the series as a last-ditch attempt to raise viewership and keep the soap opera afloat. His ‘90s counterpart is biting locals before the first commercial break.

Image: NBC/Everett Collection

“The essential characters and relationships are the same, but the things they do are different,” Curtis told The New York Times in 1991. “I thought I could rely on those old scripts, but I found that they were full of crazy plots that we couldn’t use. So all the incidents are different; we arrive at similar points through a much different route.”

Dark Shadows: The Revival also has the benefit of a stunning cast, one far more star-studded than the original’s. Ben Cross, who previously starred in the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire, turns in a romantic yet cruel version of Barnabas, making for a much more frightening vampire than what was available on TV in the ‘90s. Barbara Steele, star of horror classics like Black Sunday and Castle of Blood, plays Julia Hoffman, a delightfully scheming doctor who falls for Barnabas and wants to develop a cure for vampirism. Jean Simmons, from studio classics like Spartacus and Guys and Dolls, plays Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the strong-willed Collins family matriarch. A baby Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays David Collins, Victoria’s troubled charge, years before his Hollywood breakout.

Blood, witchcraft, and time travel

Image: NBC

Dark Shadows: The Revival runs the gamut of Gothic romance and vampire conventions, all set within the trappings of a soap opera. Its biggest swing is time travel, following Victoria as she’s unwillingly sent back in time to 1790 during a séance. It’s there that she learns more about Barnabas’ past, his love for Josette (the woman Victoria might be the reincarnation of — remember, this is a soap opera), and the witch’s curse that ultimately turned him into a vampire. It’s one of the most famous storylines in the original soap opera, with the revival compressing roughly 100 episodes into six.

Dark Shadows: The Revival was canceled in the wake of the Gulf War, with news coverage bumping it around the schedule, affecting viewership. And while the series ends on a cliffhanger, it concludes its protagonist’s arc. Victoria makes her way back to Collinwood much changed from the girl we first met on a train.

ImAGE: NBC/Everett Collection

The revival takes Victoria on the classic journey of the Gothic heroine, from a wide-eyed governess to the only person in the manor who truly understands its secrets. In the ‘60s, Curtis needed hundreds of episodes to find the voice and tone of the show and to push against genre conventions of the era. 30 years later, Curtis got to what he wanted in one season of television that ended all too soon.

Dark Shadows: The Revival is free to stream on YouTube.