Growing up in the early 70’s, and living in a small town where the nearest movie theater was about 30 miles away, I watched a lot of TV. At least when we could. You also have to realize that back then we only had 2 ½ channels. The ½ was because one of them only came in ½ of the time. But none the less, it was at a time when TV was actually pretty good for a young horror fan. From the William Castle produced TV series Ghost Story and Circle of Fear, to Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, and the countless made-for-TV movies coming on during those years, it was a good time for horror fans. And one of the reasons for that was because of writer/producer/director Dan Curtis.
Curtis is probably most known for his creation of the Dark Shadows TV series. But he also gave us The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, which would later turn into a regular TV series. He also gave us his adaptations of the classic horror stories, like Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (both starring Jack Palance), The Picture of Dorian Gray, Turn of the Screw, and of course, Frankenstein. All but one of these was filmed on video tape, so it gave them all a certain look and feel to them. They did a good job following the original text for the most part, and always had top notch actors in there as well.
The Norliss Tapes was another pilot episode for a proposed TV series, being very similar to The Night Stalker. It starred Roy Thinnes as a writer who specialized in debunking strange phenomenon. While it didn’t get picked up, it still was an exceptionally good TV movie. And of course, most everyone is familiar with the little Zuni Fetish doll from the last segment in Trilogy of Terror. While the first two segments really aren’t that bad, because the last one is so memorable, people tend to forget them, which really is a shame.
Just by looking at his work, you can tell a lot about Dan Curtis. Not only did he expect and get quality from his productions, but he also cranked them out one right after another one. Just look at how many productions he had in 1973 alone! You don’t see that type of work these days, that is for damn sure.
We had just recently finished reading a new book by Jeff Thompson entitled The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis. By reading this, we were reminded of our love for Curtis' work. So we figured there had to be others out there that felt the same way.
For me personally, probably my favorite of the list would be either The Night Stalker (mainly due to the series it started and because I just love Carl Kolchak) and Trilogy of Terror because like so many others, that little doll scared the crap out of me.
So below is a list of horror projects that Curtis worked on. I’d like to hear some of your favorites from the list. And if you grew up in the 70s like me, I’d love to hear your childhood memories from watching them!
Dark Shadows (1966-1971)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968)
House of Dark Shadows (1970)
Night of Dark Shadows (1971)
The Night Stalker (1972)
The Night Strangler (1973)
The Norliss Tapes (1973)
Frankenstein (1973)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973)
Dracula (1973)
The Turn of the Screw (1974)
Scream of the Wolf (1974)
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Dead of Night (1977)
Burnt Offerings (1976)
Curse of the Black Widow (1977)
Dark Shadows (1991)
Intruders (1992)
Trilogy of Terror 2 (1996)