Monday, January 9, 2012
Leviathans
One of the most undervalued -- if not the most undervalued -- of all the Dark Shadows storylines ... but I have a very soft space in my heart for this wacky tale of dimension hopping bad guys, Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets H. P. Lovecraft, and more continuity "reimaginings" than you can shake some slime at. But we are also treated to Quentin's icky portrait, the werewolf attempting to eat a garish purple flower, the return of Angelique as a badass, and Chris Pennock's shiny torso. So without further ado, enjoy some of the highlights of the Leviathan storyline ...
At first I didn't like this storyline- seeing Barnabas hijacked from 1795 and Josette like that and Oberon controlling him, but soon it began to develop interesting sub plots with Amanada and Quentin. Jonathan Frid was amazing in this storyline, showing so many depths to Barnabas, whose human caring heart in the end was the factor the Leviathans did not realise would be their undoing, as well as Jeb's own self discovery.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite of story lines. Supernatural did a similar take on it with their Leviathans too. Both seem to have garnered disappointment from most of their viewers. I, on the other hand, just tickled over it. I could see the influences of both Lovecraft and Guy De Maupassant. I especially liked the fast growth of the hybrid into an adult and his transformation into the invisible heavy breathing flying thing that leaves its victims dead, drained and covered in an aromatic iridescent brown slime when he wanted to kill. (Heavy breathing in both "Forbidden Planet" & "Alien Invaders" and the things were mostly invisible. In the latter the aliens took over corpses to use.)
ReplyDeleteI liked how Barnabas fought to regain his life from the Leviathan oppression and finally does. Now if they had taken over Jeb first they may not have lost.
I saw influences from Lovecraft's "The Festival", "The Dunwich Horror" mostly and Guy Maupassant's "The Horla" which Lovecraft influenced him too.