English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton opened his 1830 novel Paul Clifford with the now-famous, or infamous, words, “It was a dark and stormy night …” The line has been much maligned and parodied ever since, however, it has been adapted into the perfect name for a local production company and its inaugural Dark and Stormy Nights Film Festival, which rose from the grave this past weekend at Ocean Shores Cinema.