(A/N** This chapter is only some of the details that went on during the writing of this story. While it's not necessary at all to read this to understand the story, I thought some might enjoy learning a little behind-the-scenes trivia that went into creating the film story. I personally am a sucker for bonus features, commentaries, and interviews, and if you are the same way, I hope you enjoy this little segment .WARNING: Does contain spoilers!)

BONUS FEATURES AND EXTRAS

CHOOSING A TITLE FOR THE MOVIE: _ OF DARK SHADOWS

When I had the basic outline of this story written, I kept trying to think of one word that would sum it all up to plug into the "blank" OF DARK SHADOWS. The word that came to my mind repeatedly was "ominous". This is a very dark and intense story and, as the word suggests, very ominous in its tone.

The premise of the full moon of Samhain is an omen that many pagans believe to be a very important supernatural event that occurs every 19 years. Since that was the driving plot behind the story, it seemed right to precede "_ OF DARK SHADOWS. The word I kept going back to and the word "omen" seemed to be the exact fit for the title, and for me, it really clicked.

Although not my intention nor the reason behind my title selection, one may think of this as a tie-in to the horror classic, THE OMEN, which portrays a young boy possessed by the Antichrist. Although this could be related to what happens to David, this wasn't my reasoning for the title. So, I promise this wasn't an attempt to borrow from that movie. I chose the word based on the plot point of the "supernatural omen" of the full moon of Samhain and the ominous mood of the story itself.

WHY A SEQUEL TO HOUSE/NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS?

I loved both movies. While I like NODS slightly more than HODS, I feel that they have continuity that links them together even though they are completely different stories. There is a distinct hint of continuity that is so brief, however, that it may be easily overlooked.

For instance, Carlotta Drake mentions "the last mistress of the House, Mrs Stoddard, had a tradition of serving tea before she died.", referring to Elizabeth Stoddard from HODS. Although we never see her dying and only losing her mind, it suggests that perhaps this happened within the last year.

I understand that some may see this as a "name-only" mention, but I see it as a connection between the two. Neither opinion is wrong, but that was just the premise behind my wanting to continue and finish the story.

In NODS, no one was left alive but Angelique and Quentin (Charles), and in HODS, only Jeff, Maggie, and David survived. David was never seen past the moment when Sheriff Patterson was praising the Lord and passing out the silver ammunition to kill Barnabas, so his whereabouts were a mystery.

On top of that, we saw at the end of HODS, Barnabas isn't truly dead and flies away as a bat before the film ends, opening a window for another story to be told.

Taking all of these elements together: Jeff, Maggie, David, Quentin, Angelique, and even Barnabas gave an enormous opportunity to go once more into this timeline of DARK SHADOWS for one last time and tie everything together. This was something I've wanted to do for months, and had an oddball source as the platform to base the story on.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR THE NEW FILM STORY

As I mentioned, I had a strange inspiration to base where I wanted to go with this film. My goal was to write a story that was entertaining, intense, and very generous in what it delivers with what fans wanted to see in the first two entries. In comes the king of the monsters himself to lay the foundation: Godzilla.

I am and always have been a Godzilla fan, and one of the best was the last one before the reboot in May 2014. It was called GODZILLA: FINAL WARS.

In this film, every monster that was ever featured in any of the (then) 50 years of films was thrown in. I wanted to put every character that I could into this story without giving the reader/viewer the feeling that characters were "shoe-horned" in.

This idea is why I wanted to bring in John Lasell as Peter Guthrie, Robert Rodan as Adam, Michael McGuire as my favorite Dark Shadows villain (besides Angelique) Judah Zachary, and Alexandra Moltke as Maggie's daughter, Victoria Winters. I would have loved to feature one of Marie Wallace's characters, but most fans know that she was originally written into HODS, so I felt like I should leave that alone. This was really sad for me because I really love Marie Wallace, but for the sake of the story to be told and not overcrowding the cast, I decided to leave her in the HODS timeline and leave the original material alone in that sense.

From the get-go, I wanted this to be a very generous film in that it would deliver the two best-loved villains of the series, Barnabas and Angelique, and introduce a new character from the series into the film storyline through Judah Zachary, who himself is raw, unemotional evil personified. No one is sacred to him, and nothing drives him more than his need for power and vengeance.

THEY TALKED, I LISTENED.

I've heard many fans speaking of things they wish they had seen in the two films, and I really wanted to address them the best way that I could. First of all on my list was to try and address what many fans complained was the thinness of the leading couple.

In television, especially a show that is serialized daily like DARK SHADOWS, characters become part of our daily lives and who we are. We know them inside and out, and can often predict what they may do before they actually do it. That's a relationship that is involuntarily established when you become involved in a television show. In films, however, it's much different.

Given that these are basically the characters of the same name as the series, DARK SHADOWS fans go into the films with all of the lines basically colored in about who these characters are based on their daily interaction with them through the show. For those not so acquainted with the show, they may not see much to these characters and feel that, by the time the film is over, they never really knew much about them. In HODS/NODS,the underdevelopment of Maggie/Jeff and Quentin/Tracy has been addressed, and so I wanted to spend a bit of time establishing the survivors of these two as real, fleshed-out characters.

In the aftermath of what they've been through, they're dealing with all kinds of emotional baggage. Definitely not any kind of "textbook" trauma that a normal therapist or psychiatrist would really know how to give coping skills to deal with these circumstances.

SETTING THE MOOD

I believe, as both films did so well, that atmosphere is everything. Both films, especially NODS, looked like they were shot on very chilly fall days. This automatically sets a tone and mindset of Halloween, giving the feeling of chilly crisp air blowing, the smell of leaves and the sounds of them crunching, and the melancholy tone that fall colors and scenery seem to develop in oneself. On top of this, I wanted to really to give the reader/viewer an in-depth look of what Jeff and Maggie are feeling and how they are trying to cope with the fear that they live in.

As you have read, Maggie and Jeff have about four years worth of space between this story and HODS, and with it, they have four years of baggage that they carry with them. Jeff lives in constant fear and often has nightmares, seeing them obsessively as premonitions. Maggie has become somewhat of an alcoholic and a "raw sore that won't heal". Both of them feel bitterness to an extreme as they now live in hiding, and their fears have trapped them inside their little safe-house. Jeff blames Maggie for his life being wasted because he was a very talented artist, and he feels that his obligations as Maggie's husband and protector have ruined his life.

Maggie has developed an internal resentment toward her husband as she hears Jeff blaming her for his problems and for his life taking the direction that it has. She sees him as an unstable aggressive mess that she has no choice but to give in to for fear of safety. All of this on top of their own fears and experiences from HODS give them an overflowing cornucopia of emotional baggage to dig through and cope with. Neither of them want to stay, and they live very claustrophobic lives. On the other hand, they both feel the small glimmer of hope buried underneath all of this trauma that makes them believe that someday, they will be free from their fears and they will learn to love each other the way they had originally started. Underneath it all, they still feel enough love for each other that they just can't give up completely and leave.

This is where Dr Guthrie's character comes in. During the early days of television and film, doctors were colored as omnipotent and invincible. Dr Guthrie's character sort of follows that approach as he not only is an expert on the paranormal,he also seems to have a keen sense of healing emotional hurts as well. It is implied in the story that he has been working not only to take care of Maggie and Jeff physically by giving them a house to live in and bringing them supplies and food regularly, but he has also been trying to help them manage their instabilities with each other and help them to try to live and function as normally as possible.

With all of this in mind, Jeff and Maggie, who live at odds with each other, are forced to trust and hold on to each other as they return to Collinwood to face their fears in one last chance to try to overcome the evil that haunts and threatens them on a day-to-day basis.

In an interview with Collinsport Historical Society, Humbert Allan Astredo commented that, to keep an audience entertained, you have to think of a rubber band. You have to keep it stretched and maintain that tension throughout the story or you will lose your audience. This is a very stressful story, and when writing it, I did everything I could to keep that "rubber band" stretched as tightly as possible throughout. It is a very intense story that deals constantly with raw fear and emotions, and it leaves very few seconds that you can relax. One of the most stressful elements of life is a time-limit, so adding this into the mix was the icing on the cake as far as tension was concerned.

The events of this movie take place in a 24-hour timeframe, but when the plot of the full moon is revealed, seconds become precious time until the end.

RETURN TO COLLINWOOD

When David arrives, he is possessed by the spirit of Judah Zachary, whose body he came across when he returned to Collinwood the night before. With him, he brings the diary of one of his disciples, Titus Clark, who is an ancestor of Jeff's. Judah uses his power to find Titus Clark's descendent, knowing that, because of the spell cast on his body, he needed the blood of one of his descendants to return to full power on this rare omen of a full moon that fell on the pagan holiday of Samhain, or as we commonly refer to it as, Halloween.

According to pagan myth, the gateway between the spiritual realm and our own natural realm is opened and many spirits and demonic forces enter into the world during this phenomenon that occurs every 19 years. Using this as a means to lure them back to Collinwood where his body was buried by his disciple, Judah uses David's body to bring them all back by making them believe that they had to destroy the body of Judah Zachary. All the while, he was luring them there to kill them all and use the blood of Titus Clark's descendant to completely restore his spirit and live again.

One of my favorite moments in this story is the nostalgic feeling as the famous melody that opens NODS plays as they return to Collinwood during the sunset. The music, I feel, is an important part to horror films, especially in DARK SHADOWS.

SCORING THE SOUNDTRACK

Of course, there was no where else that I wanted to go except to Robert Cobert. The music he composed in the series was such an integral part, and I would go so far as to say that the music itself was like its own character in the series. That music was transferred so well into the films.

Each film had its own original piece that wasn't featured in the show. At the end of HODS, the music, although used in THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE, was new to the series and was so powerful in its dynamic. As mentioned earlier, the opening theme of NODS is legendary and so well-loved by fans. It's a haunting melody that is both scary and beautiful at the same time.

With this story, I wanted to bring in the piano theme, "Memories of a Lifetime" that was used in the Dan Curtis film, BURNT OFFERINGS. It's a beautiful piece, and dealing with the subject matter of a story dealing with reincarnation of both horror and romance elements, it seemed a perfect fit into this story.

Adding music cues was difficult, but for those who knew the music and appreciate it as much as I do as its own entity in the DARK SHADOWS world, I felt that it was necessary to include them to drive the atmosphere and emotion conveyed in each act.

THE RETURN OF BARNABAS

This was a tricky subject. Carolyn was staked and never returned in HODS, and neither did the rest of the Collins family who was afflicted with vampirism. So how did Barnabas escape after he was staked by Jeff?

For this, I used an excerpt from Lara Parker's book, ANGELIQUE'S DESCENT. In her book, she spoke of a vampire whose curse mandated that he could only be killed during the day while sleeping in his coffin. He and the arms of death that held him in his coffin by day had to be struck simultaneously before he was truly vanquished. Since the origins of Barnabas were different in this timeline, this left an opportunity to use this as an explanation for how Barnabas was able to return.

In HODS, Barnabas told Willie a story of how he lost Josette and how he was afflicted by his curse. There was no love affair with Angelique in this timeline. He told Willie that "they" put this curse on him. Putting two and two together, I thought, "What if 'they' were disciples of Judah Zachary?"

((Enough for story's sake was explained by Dr Guthrie in ACT VI, but to see a little mini-story that builds up this film, check out THE DIARY OF TITUS CLARK for the full back story on the curse))

Since Barnabas' father, Joshua, had Judah Zachary tried and executed for witchcraft, his disciples came together and inflicted a curse on Barnabas so that he would kill his family and anyone else in town who defied their leader. As part of the curse, they made the only vulnerability such that he could only be truly stopped if he was struck in the same manner. He and death had to be struck simultaneously to truly destroy him. This gave an opportunity and explanation as to how Barnabas could return even after the ending of HODS, and provided the means to bring him back into this story.

Barnabas, like Jeff and Maggie, wanted to be free from the life that he was trapped in, and he felt that he was unfairly placed where he was in life because of his curse. More than anything, he also tried to do, as Jeff and Maggie, what it would take to live as normally as possible with the one he loved.

Tragically, in the end, neither of them was able to achieve this. The price of eradicating the source of two centuries of evil and suffering proved to be too high for either of them.

KEEPING THE SAME FORMULA AS THE ORIGINAL TWO FILMS

I tried in every way to keep basically the same "skeleton" outline that was in the two films. You have someone who is smart and knows most of what is going on (Professor Stokes, Carlotta Drake, and Dr Guthrie), a couple who is fighting against the supernatural to survive (Jeff/Maggie, Quentin/Tracy, and one could argue that Jeff/Maggie, Quentin/Angelique, and Barnabas/Josette are all fighting to save their love in this one).

Each film had screeching car scenes, so in this one, I wanted to push this little station wagon past its limits in an exciting sequence where they had to escape from Adam and break through the gates of Collinwood in a hurry.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, I tried to keep the score the same as the show, and introduce only one new theme into the film. I felt that this would help to keep the reader/viewer locked in the world of DARK SHADOWS through familiar sounds and atmosphere that we all love, especially in the dream sequences in this story.

Of course, in the ending, there was the familiar Shakespearean element of most of the cast dying. In this film story, there is very little left to tell. Adam has disappeared, David leaves with Maggie who, as told in the ending, dies from complications only a couple months later while delivering Victoria. Dr Guthrie is dead, Jeff is dead, and Barnabas is forced to live without Josette, whose spirit was lost because of the jet stone.

DIVING INTO THE ENDING

I am not a fan of lame vampire stories that have "super-rings" that allow them to go out in sunlight and twinkle/sparkle or whatever. In this story, I researched some rituals dealing with supernatural manifestations, and I came across a particular stone that many "paranormal experts" believe to absorb and dissolve negative energy that many spirits, whether evil or simply grieving, use as a means to make themselves manifest in our world. Adding something like this seemed to be a different and more credible direction to take. The item didn't give any kind of special powers or immortality, but the stone itself was unique. It wasn't just something that was made up to give a superpower, but was more of a practical tool that is common and has a history passed through different religions and practices.

Enough to cover the explanation of the stone for the story's sake is given by Dr Guthrie in ACT V, but here is the full explanation of what I researched.

This stone is black in color and is called a jet stone. Many believe that it has power to, if someone is possessed, absorb or dissolve the energy required for the possessing spirit to exist, causing them to fade into nothingness. However, the stone must be in close proximity for it to be effective. This is why, if you noticed in the story, David always backs away whenever Dr Guthrie is close because Judah Zachary feels the effects of this stone set inside the doctor's ring weakening him inside of David's body. So Judah's spirit does what he must to stay as far away from Dr Guthrie to keep from losing himself or revealing that he has possessed David.

In the end, however, Dr Guthrie succeeds in destroying the spirit of Judah that was living inside of David. This victory backfired, however, when David came back to his senses and saw Maggie being taken by Barnabas. He grabbed her to pull her away, completely oblivious to the fact that the ring on his finger was destroying the spirit of Josette that had taken control of Maggie.

However, the ending could be seen as one that is hopeful, depending on how you look at it. Although Jeff and Maggie ultimately didn't survive, they could be reunited in death where their problems no longer existed. For Barnabas, although Josette was now gone forever, he would have a chance to try to find his "Josette" again through Victoria Winters.

This ending can bring up some interesting points. Ultimately, I wanted to leave the ending open. Not really a cliffhanger, but one that fans could interpret their own idea of how the scenario could play out. Really, there's not much story there to continue into another film in my opinion, other than maybe a love story that could play out several ways. Maybe some fans would like to see Barnabas and Victoria have a beautiful love story and live happily ever after (my own preference). Some may like to see a re-telling of the trials that Maggie Evans experienced, and see Victoria escaping from Barnabas and see him finally destroyed.

Maybe neither of those. Perhaps Victoria could meet a square-jawed, handsome stranger named Burke Devlin at the train station and go away with him, completely ignoring the invitation from Barnabas.

Allowing fans to talk and make this play out how they would like to see is my final act of generosity with this story. Many fans like/dislike how movies end, so, even though I consider the story finished, it leaves a canvas open for a few extra brush strokes for fans to color it in the way they want.

Who knows? Maybe forty years from now, someone will want to piggyback on this and write a whole new story the way that I did with the original two.

Thanks so much for reading this story, and thanks for caring enough to read the extras about how this story came to be. My hope was that it would genuinely and generously give you that feel and atmosphere as the original two films did, keeping you tense and entertained. I also hoped that it would be one story that has a good "re-read" value that you would go back to someday and notice things that you may have missed the first time around and enjoy it more the second time!

Take care, and many blessings. :)=