Dark Shadows
Tags: dark, comedy, gothic, intrigue, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, absurd, romantic, revenge

Plot synopsis:
In 1760, the Collins family moves from Liverpool, England to Maine and establishes the fishing town Collinsport, where they built their estate, Collinwood.
When he first arrives, the young son Barnabas (Johnny Depp), meets the young Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) who instantly falls in love with him. Angelique's witch mother who was with her at that time warned her of socializing with people of noble birth. This, however, did not stop Angelique from following the family for many years, hoping to be noticed by Barnabas.
In 1776 (that is, 16 years later), Barnabas, now a grown man, falls in love with a young woman named Josette du Pres (Bella Heathcote), scorning Angelique who was now working as a maid in his household. Turning to black magic, Angelique curses the Collins family, first killing Barnabas's parents (Ivan Kaye and Susanna Cappellaro) in an assumed accident, then by enchanting Josette to leap to her death off a cliff. In a fit of grief, Barnabas attempts to leap to his own death but that fails as well, as Angelique has cursed him to the immortal life of a vampire. When he still rejects her advances, she turns the town against him, and he is buried alive in a coffin.
In 1972 (that is, 196 years later), the young Maggie Evans (also Bella Heathcote), under the assumed identity of "Victoria Winters", applies for a job as a governess at Collinwood and meets with the current reclusive matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer). Her nephew David (Gulliver McGrath), for whom Victoria will be caring, believes his mother, who drowned in a boating accident, still visits him. Victoria does not divulge that since her young age she, too, can see ghosts.
After meeting with David, his live-in psychiatrist Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), his father Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), and Elizabeth's rebellious daughter Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz), Victoria is hired by Elizabeth. That night, Victoria sees the ghost of Josette who warns that "He's coming" before disappearing after falling from a chandelier.
Elsewhere, a group of construction workers dig up Barnabas's coffin and inadvertently free him. After sating his blood thirst of 196 years, and shocked by the modern times he finds himself in, Barnabas returns to Collinwood, and hypnotizes the groundskeeper Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) as his personal Renfield, and introduces himself to the family as a "distant relative". Elizabeth believes him to be a con man until he reveals hidden riches buried in a secret room within the house, when Elizabeth thought the family to be destitute. After realizing who and what Barnabas is, she asks to keep it a secret, barely passing him off as a distant cousin.
Barnabas is instantly smitten with Victoria when he meets her as she resembles Josette. He seeks out Carolyn's advice on courting her. Angelique, now an immortal witch herself, visits Barnabas and threatens him not to go into business competition against her. Nevertheless, Barnabas reopens the Collins family cannery business and uses hypnosis to steal several of the fisherman crews who work for Angelique. She tries to buy him off. Even after an episode of supernatural lust between the two of them, he rejects her offer. Julia discovers his identity by hypnotizing him and offers to cure his vampiric condition via blood transfusions.
Barnabas wants to hold a ball to reintroduce the family to the townsfolk. Carolyn suggests they make it a happening with musician Alice Cooper as the headliner. At the ball, Barnabas catches Roger stealing from guest's coats. Victoria reveals to Barnabas that she's actually an escapee from the mental asylum where her parents had her confined since she was a child due to her powers.
Angelique makes a grand appearance in order to seduce Barnabas. When she catches him kissing Victoria, she becomes even more embittered. Barnabas, on his part, wishes even more desperately to be mortal again. Barnabus finds out Julia has been using his blood to make herself immortal, so he kills her and dumps her body into the bay with Willie's help. After catching Roger trying to break into the secret room, Barnabas gives him a choice: to stay and be an exemplary father to David or leave with enough money to live his life alone. Roger chooses the latter, to David's heartbreak. Barnabas's true identity is finally revealed to the rest of the family and Victoria when he saves David from a falling disco ball. Victoria is scared by the revelation and runs away.
Angelique summons Barnabas again to her office, but when he rejects her offer of partnership once again, she traps him into another coffin, this time burying him in a mausoleum. Shortly after, he is found and freed by David, alerted by his mother's ghost. Meanwhile, Angelique destroys the Collins's factory and implicates Barnabas in the murders of Julia and all the people he had to feed on, turning the townsfolk against the family.
At the mansion, Elizabeth and Barnabus see the police, Angelique, and the angry mob approaching as Caroyln withdraws into the mansion. Barnabas reveals his and Angelique's true nature in front of an angry mob and a fight ensues. During the fight following the mob's departure upon these revelations, Carolyn reveals she is a werewolf, a massive fire breaks out in the house. Ultimately, the ghost of David's mother (Josephine Butler) manages to hurl Angelique against the chandelier, which then falls to the ground, mortally wounding her as she starts to shatter. She literally offers her heart to Barnabas again, but he refuses it and it turns to dust and she dies. David learns from his mother that Victoria is headed toward the cliffs where Josette committed suicide. David asks Elizabeth what the Collins family will do now, and Elizabeth says they will do what they've always done: "endure."
After catching up to Victoria at the cliffs, Barnabas refuses to turn her into a vampire. Victoria throws herself from the cliffs; he leaps after her, biting her so she can survive the fall as a vampire. She awakens, asking him to call her Josette, and the two kiss passionately on the rocky shore.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the bay, Julia, who had been assumed dead, suddenly opens her eyes to her new immortal life as well.

Review: Eva Green is the type of actress Tim Burton is attracted to and loves to cast in his films, but she possesses little of Angelique's spellbinding jealousy.
This new Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version has some good elements in it, like the costumes, soundtrack and special effects, but the problem here lies in the written word.
The film Dark Shadows opened to an eagerly awaiting audience of both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp fans.
The majority of the movie is set in 1972 and incorporates music from the Moody Blues (Nights in White Satin) with appearances by Karen Carpenter in a TV scene, a cameo appearance by Alice Cooper and appearances by four of the original Dark Shadows actors including Jonathan Frid who passed away shortly after filming.
Johnny is one of my all time favorite actors and when he teams up with director Tim Burton, you know it's a film worth seeing.
Though I'm glad they didn't rely on as much CGI to create the set pieces, one major scene involving a concert looked like it was stolen from the Austin Powers films.Johnny Depp did some great physical comedy as well as Helena Bonham Carter and Jackie Earle Haley, but Dark Shadows should go back to the grave..
Despite its flaws (which were forgivable in a way), this reviewer spent many days and hours watching it with sheer joy, it really helping me get through many stressful and mentally straining times this year at music college (though there were many great times too, and saw a huge progression and several seemingly impossible achievements).Sadly, this 2012 film version of 'Dark Shadows' was hugely disappointing.
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp apparently claim to be fans of 'Dark Shadows', but to me that wasn't obvious at all.
There was more of a sense that Burton hadn't even seen the show, seeing as the tone and spirit feels completely wrong, or he thought he could improve upon it.On its own as a film, it has its good points but several major flaws that to be honest for this reviewer were more obvious.
There are some amusing, well-written lines in the script, loved the line about Alice Cooper and it is most successful when Barnabas is struggling to fit in, and a few of the cast acquit themselves well.Johnny Depp is no Jonathan Frid and he has given better performances (though also much worse, it is one of his better performances in any of his later collaborations with Burton), but he is clearly having a lot of fun as Barnabas without overdoing it and is one of the most involved members of the cast, he also is very charismatic.
5/10 Bethany Cox. Will Suck the Life Out of You. I guess I will start out by saying that I am a huge Johnny Depp fan and that I even like some of Tim Burton's works (Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas).
But the witch Angie is still alive and is prominent in the town and she has not forgotten Barnabas."Dark Shadows" is a film by Tim Burton that has a promising beginning but the development is lost between comedy and horror.
A featurised reimagining of a TV soap opera, Tim Burton returns with a gruesome dark comedy about a XIXth Century vampire Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), the entrepreneurial creator of a fishing empire in the town of Collinwood, who is unwittingly released from his eternal coffin prison.
Hence he decides to live with his descendants in his family mansion, populated by Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), her daughter Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz), her brother-in-law Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), nephew David (Gulliver McGrath) as well as an assorted crowd of alcoholic psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), caretaker Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) and babysitter Victoria Wnters (Bella Heathcote).
To his surprise the Collins fortune has largely fallen into disregard, whilst the town's fishing business is currently overrun by Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), the witch responsible for turning him into a vampire.Admittedly an immense Tim Burton fan "Dark Shadows" is sadly his worst picture apart from "Planet of the Apes".
The story wiggles around trying to bring together a coherent plot, but instead seems like a poorly glued together sequence of scenes of varying quality, which fail to either construct a story or instill any sense of affinity towards any on-screen character.Conversely Burton's sense of glorious Gothic atmosphere is at its best with set designs and rummaging shots quintessential stuff and possibly some of the best in his career.
Tim Burton+Johnny Depp+Helena Bonham Carter+Michelle Pfeiffer = Terrific movie..
The female characters were straight out of "Bewitched", and many of the special effects were a mishmash of "Beetlejuice" and "Death Becomes Her" coated in the usual Burton eye-shadow (not intrinsically a bad thing, but now starting to look like last year's "colourway").
Unfortunately, the film stayed faithful to the original and was more soap opera-like than comedic.Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is from the 1770s but had a curse placed on him (because of unrequited love) and is pulled from his coffin as a vampire in 1972.
Maybe it would have been okay if I had not seen the original shows but watching this adaptation made me cringe!Johnny Depp and Michelle Pheiffer should have known better if they had ever really became involved in the original show.Makes me wonder what Jonathan Frid and other people in the original show really thought of this movie.
As for the visuals it was all so predictable and yawn.I think the Depp and Burton partnership is extremely over rated and Johnny should consider playing parts in far better films, as he obviously has the potential.
Funny although Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is the main character in this movie in the soap he was introduced in the second season and grew to become one of the main character.I haven't seen any of the episodes in the series but if the movie is anything like the series then I wonder...This is the Eight (if am not mistaken) movie that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have made together and it is one of the worst I have seen from both.The main issue about the movie isn't the theme, the theme is actually well crafted and I give kudos to the customer designer and the set manager, but the movie is so unevenly paced one time you are excited then next you are dragged into a long conversation.The Vampire has some tricks up its sleeves other than the fact that he could make you his zombie (which he did enough times in the movie), he could also bore you to death (which he did throughout the movie).The story goes thus: In the 18th century the Collins built a huge fortune in the fishing industry in Maine.
I'm a big time Burton fan, even have a tattoo of TNBC but this film is lame and I'm getting really really bored of the j depp and h b carter characters in EVERY single one of his films, both good actors but jeez cast some fresh faces Tim tired old relationships Alice, Charlie and the chocolate factory, corpse bride, dark shadow, Sweeney Todd feels a bit like watching an extended version of the same film except it gets more tedious and boring, will definitely not sit through this rubbish again!!!!!only small saving grace is a fairly good performance by Chloe grace Moretz and a OK performance by Michelle Pfeifer, otherwise boring.
the only thing this film offers that differs from the usual Tim Burton styling is less light and more shad, in most of his films there is an equal balance of bright colours (in corpse bride the underworld was colourful in image and in soul compared to the surface world where everything was grey!) Johhny Depp as Barnabus is dull as a vampire, overacted and far too much make up with far too much obvious confusion when he comes to the more modern world, no surprises and none of his his usual unexpected wit, the jokes are not funny and i think 4 year olds would be able to guess the plot as it unfolds!.
How else could such a plain script attract the likes of Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Carter, and Chloe Moretz?I have never seen the original television show that sparked this movie.
Once the characters have been established the story galumphs along through a combination of montages (some with visual wit) accompanied by 70s pop music and outbursts of violence (fights, explosions, a wild seduction) until the dreary mess finally ends.The trajectory of the plot - the struggle of Barnabas to save his family from Angelique's curse and reunite with the modern incarnation of his 18th century lover - brings us too often into the outside world of the nearby town with its noises, bright lights and bustle and corporate board meetings and high-lit factory assembly lines, which violates the stark and morbid Gothic atmosphere that made the original series unique.
The other cast members range from excellent (Chloe Grace Moretz as bratty Collins daughter Caroline) to good (Johnny Lee Miller, as the decadent Roger Collins, who could have been even better if he had been given more of a chance) to sloppy (Helena Bonham Carter, as Dr. Julia Hoffman, who tries to cure Barnabas of vampirism; she too is undermined by the script which makes her sober, thoughtful character into a pill-popping, carrot-haired lush for no apparent reason).It would be interesting if other directors took a crack at "Dark Shadows." There is much in this iconic artifact of popular culture to draw from and it's a shame to let it go to waste.
Depp was great as Barnabus, but, the story played out flat.As for the comedy aspect, what you saw in the trailers was 90% of what was funny in the movie.Classic failure of Hollywood today, wow you with the trailer, get a big name to lead the film, have gorgeous sets and costumes, set in a beautiful location, in the end it's a stinker..
Tim Burton has pulled his Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter dolls out of his play chest again and decided this time they're engaged in a supernatural love story taking place in the 1970s.Like most of Burton's films, "Dark Shadows" hits on moments of gleeful peculiarity that remind us why we've been following his exploits for decades, but by and large it feels over- trodden and uninspired, and that latter adjective is not one to wield lightly against Burton to be sure.That's not to say Burton has lost a step by any means; he still does what he does better than anyone can, but his past successes have set the bar higher than he dares to even jump with "Dark Shadows." Depp plays Burton dress-up again as Barnabas Collins of the wealthy Collinses who immigrated from Liverpool and established a fishing empire in Maine.
It will surely remind those who've seen most of Burton's work that he is a man in love with classic B movies, not to mention Gothic appearances and odd turns of events.Although Depp brings the humor, Eva Green is the standout as Angelique, who 200 years later still desires Barnabas and has destroyed his family in the process with her own fishing empire.
Perhaps the film's one true crime is providing no good reason for being a "Dark Shadows" adaptation, and consequently seeming somewhat purposeless.No doubt Burton had fun making this movie.
A campy performance by J.Depp, a strong supporting cast, some cool and fun special effects here and there, and jokes about the early 70s popular trends cannot save this movie from being one of 2012's worst releases.There are no thrills, there is very little action, there are very few funny moments, the pace is slow, there is no character development, the plot is thin and not clever.
This allowed me to watch the film Dark Shadows without any blinding nostalgia nor devotion, and even though it didn't bore me, it didn't leave me very satisfied, mainly because I found its screenplay too diffuse.On some way, I understand the problem faced by screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith to adapting a soap-opera for the cinema; there are many characters the fans expect to find, and very few time to bring them substantial or interesting sub-plots.
if you're looking for a comedy i don't suggest this movie,dark shadows is not a fine work for Deep or Burton.
That's not the end of the fish-out-of-water jokes that passes as humour- other than the anachronistic values about women and childbirth that Barnabas still clings to, he is just as out of step in front of a TV playing a Karen Carpenter show or among a bunch of hippies.Fans of the original series may object to the deliberately campy tone that Burton and his screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith (with an extra story credit to Burton's frequent writing partner John August) adopt for the movie, but those less bound by expectations will lap up Johnny Depp's delightfully quirky rendition of Barnabas.
I swear I forgot Bella Heathcote was in the film at on point and she is the love interest, and I didn't forget because I was "Caught up in the thrill ride that is Dark Shadows." I forgot because she disappeared for a good 35 minutes and she isn't doing anything during that time, not in danger or kidnapped just kinda goes off screen and comes back later, as to say "Did I miss anything?.
"Dark Shadows" is an excellent take and spin on the Gothic classic and Tim's story is filled with a journey and search for family and love plus the comedy and horror mix make the film very interesting to anyone.
And the all star cast makes the film work even more as two Tim favorites Johnny Depp(Barnabas Collins)and Michelle Pfeiffer(Elizabeth Collins Stoddard)shine with star power.The film has a story in a historical and Gothic kind of way starting in 1752 in Liverpool, England a young Barnabas(Depp)suffers some fatal tragedies at the hands of a curse put out by a sexy yet jealous witch Angelique Bouchard(Eva Green).
To help both defeat the wicked witch is the Collins Stoddard family as Michelle Pfeiffer is elegant and sexy in a classic kind of way and in top notch form as family head leader Elizabeth and true this a strange bunch as Elizabeth's daughter Carolyn(Chloe Grace Moretz) is a certain little hand full and family head doctor Julia Hoffman(Helena Bonham Carter) needs medication herself.Overall this horror comedy drama is full of laughs, love, culture, and searching for belonging and acceptance still it closes the historical Gothic story out to a happy ending.
Curiously, this campy series had such an influence on director Tim Burton and Johnny Depp that they decided to make a modern version of it.The result is this lavish production that has Depp playing Barnabas Collins as a 200-year-old vampire who wakes up in 1972 and is forced to navigate an era of hippies, pot, disco and free love.
Burtons films are never "bad", though Alice in Wonderland and Planet of the Apes weren't good, Dark Shadows just doesn't really deliver when it really could of.Johnny Depp plays the character well, but I think an English actor would have been better cast, as his accent sounds forced a lot of the time.
Dark Shadows (2012) A part spoof, part earnest (oddly) vampire movie with only a few of the twists and visual effects you'd expect from director Tim Burton.
But the art and set direction are good.***** Dark Shadows (5/7/12) Tim Burton ~ Johnny Depp, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bella Heathcote.
I actually hated the House of Dark Shadows movie because it turned my favorite characters and the great story lines of the series into a mindless bloodbath.
Going into the movie, everyone should expect some weirdness, that is Tim's style, which is why this dark vampire movie is perfect for him.Johnny Depp is in his zone as creepy, out-of-place Barnabas Collins.
I am not name savvy enough to have known Tim Burton's film history (though I of course recognised the name) nor the series it was supposed to be a spoof of, so perhaps I benefited from not having expectations for this movie.I love Chloe Moretz though she isn't central to the story, and Bella Heathcotte who plays 2 characters.
But people will watch my films whatever I do" - and made this "movie".I would put this film 2 points, if there is not Johnny Depp (he is really good everywhere, and in "Dark Shadows" too), Helena Bonham Carter (she had a small role, but she played it really perfectly) and a little boy similar to Benedict Cumberbatch.Burton's idea to create a film based on a classic TV-series failed.
Now we have this new theatrical movie version based on the television series which is directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp among it's quite impressive cast.
Seeing this made me wonder why Tim Burton and/or Johnny Depp ever thought this would work as campy comedy.
Johnny Depp's character really was different than any films he has ever done, but very good sense of humor and has a Gothic view on how vampires should be.
First of all I must say that I am a big fan of Dark Shadows the original television series, and I am a big fan of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (separately and collaboratively.
I love Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's done some good stuff, so I figured it would be a pretty decent movie.
This is just another movie (a la Alice in Wonderland) where the names Tim Burton and Johnny Depp don't go synonymous with greatness.Barnabas Collins (Depp) is a vampire, imprisoned for 200 years in a coffin by his arch nemesis and lover-to-the-end-of-time Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), and wakes up in 1972, only to find that he is in a different place, different time, and that his family fortune is all but none.
When I originally saw the trailer for Dark Shadows, my first thought was why would Tim Burton remake this classic supernatural television series drama about a tormented vampire named Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) into a comedy?