Starring Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker, Jerry Lacy and Marie Wallace

Written by Marcy Robin, Adam Usden, Lara Parker & Kay Stonham; directed by Darren Gross

In which tragic and/or supernatural events from their pasts will haunt the lives of young Josette du Pres (Scott), preacher Elias Trask (Lacy), the witch Angélique Bouchard (Parker) and Collins matriarch Elizabeth Stoddard (Wallace)…

For this quartet of audio stories, the past appears to be the running theme. In the cases of Josette and Elizabeth, tragic events befall each of them early in life and have lingering effects. As for Elias Trask, the past sins of his father and grandfather continually threaten to manifest themselves with him. And in Angélique’s case, the past and the present collide thanks to her actions.

Written by veteran Dark Shadows mega-fan Marcy Robin, “Hell Wind” puts seven-year-old Josette du Pres through the wringer when a powerful hurricane strikes her Caribbean island home of Martinique with heartbreaking results. Having played Josette off and on for over 50 years, Kathryn Leigh Scott wrings every bit of tension out of Robin’s prose without ever quite falling into the melodrama that Dark Shadows is frequently criticised of being.

In Adam Usden’s “Communion”, the itinerant cleric Elias Trask and his son Gregory are surviving the American Civil War as best they can (i.e., not every well at all), attempting to spread the word of God without getting blown to bits in the process. Elias’s perpetual attempts to reconcile their continual misfortunes as divine tests and/or parts of God’s will, bring a dark humour to the grim proceedings, which culminate in an inevitable but still shocking series of unfortunate events.

Sadly, for this reviewer, Lara Parker’s “The Ghost Ship” is by far the weakest of the four stories on offer. While it starts off promisingly enough – with a spectral Angélique encountering the three Wailing Widows of Widows Hill – Parker quickly introduces enough plot elements to fill one of her Dark Shadows novels and this audio vignette becomes bloated and unnecessarily continuity-laden. Consequently, one must reluctantly concur with Angélique’s declaration that this is story that “perhaps would be better left untold”.

Lastly comes Kay Stonham’s “A Face From The Past”, a poignant twist on the Dark Shadows staple of encountering a new character who’s the spitting image of an already-established one. After living in Paris for years, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard gets a sudden urge in 1986 to return to Collinsport. There, she encounters a handsome young real estate agent who is a dead ringer for her first love, Victor. And when he shows Elizabeth the property that she and Victor were to share as husband and wife, things take a peculiar turn… Narrated with aching pathos by Marie Wallace, this exploration of Elizabeth’s past is arguably Haunting Memories’ highlight.

Verdict: With only one disappointing tale out of four, this is no sophomore slump for this Dark Shadows range. 7/10

John S. Hall