Barnabas runs after Josette but he arrives too late. He jumps over the cliff to kill himself, but Angelique has already turned Barnabas into a vampire before he reaches the bottom. Soon after, Angelique convinces the townspeople that Barnabas is a vampire, having them capture him and bury him alive in a chained coffin in the woods.

In 1972, a woman named Maggie Evans travels by train to Collinsport, responding to an advertisement to be the governess to a young boy, David Collins. While on the train, she decides to change her name to Victoria Winters, practicing asking the family to call her "Vicky". She hitches a ride with hippies to Collinwood Manor, where she meets Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the matriarch of the family, her troubled nephew David, and the families' servants, Willie Loomis and old Mrs. Johnson. It is explained that David's mother died at sea and he believes his mother speaks to him. Elizabeth takes Victoria on a tour of Collinwood Manor, which is falling into disrepair. While on the tour, Victoria meets Elizabeth's 15-year-old rebellious and provocative daughter Carolyn. At dinner, Victoria meets the rest of the dysfunctional family; Roger, Elizabeth's brother and indifferent father of David, and Dr. Julia Hoffman, an alcoholic psychiatrist who had been hired to help David overcome his belief that he can speak to his dead mother, but thus far has been unsuccessful. David appears in a sheet to look like a ghost, trying to frighten Victoria. David talks of his mother speaking to him, and Carolyn calls him crazy, but Victoria states she believes in ghosts. After dinner, Victoria is in her room and believes she sees David again appearing under the same sheet. She removes the sheet, but sees the ghost of Josette instead, who remarks "He's coming", before hovering to the large chandelier in the foyer and falling as she did from the cliff.

That night, Barnabas is accidentally freed from his coffin by a group of construction workers. He feeds on them and makes his way back to Collinwood Manor, finding his once-magnificent mansion in a sad state. Barnabas convinces Elizabeth that he really is who he says he is, and asks her of the family curse and the story of how he died. She answers that nobody knows how he died so he explains that is because he didn't. Barnabas then shows her a secret room full of treasures as a proof of his identity. She says he may stay with them under two conditions: that he keeps the secret of the riches in the room and of his vampirism to everyone else in the house, to which Barnabas agrees. Barnabas is introduced to the family at breakfast. Elizabeth explains that he is a distant relative from England and Barnabas explains he has come to help the family revitalize their business. Barnabas decides to restore his family name.

Angelique, now a respected and successful resident of Collinsport, soon discovers that he has escaped his shallow grave. She wants win him back so she visits the mansion and tells him to join her or he will regret it. He tells her he has no feelings for her and she leaves. He discovers that his family's fishing company is in ruins because of Angelique's business, Angel Bay Fishery, and takes steps to revitalize and rebuild the company (and the mansion), gaining the trust of the family in the process. As the Collins fishery begins to pick up, Angelique calls Barnabas to her office for a meeting, again offering that he either join and love her or she will destroy him and everything he loves. She manages to seduce him and they make love, wrecking her office in doing so. But when they are finished, he says can never love her as he has fallen in love with Victoria, again leaving. Barnabas turns to Carolyn for help as he tries to win over the heart of Victoria but doesn't know how. Carolyn explains he needs to be less "weird" and tells him he should get some normal friends. Later that night Barnabas goes out into the woods with the same hippies that drove Victoria to the mansion. They discuss love before Barnabas regretfully feeds on them.

The next day, Dr. Hoffman hypnotizes Barnabas in a therapy session and he confesses to being a vampire, as well as to the murders of the construction workers and the hippies. She is shocked and fascinated by him and runs to Elizabeth to ask why she keeps such a secret to herself. Elizabeth tells her not to tell anyone else of his secret. Dr. Hoffman offers to help turn Barnabas into a human via blood transfusions. At dinner, Barnabas decides to restore their name by having a ball. Carolyn retorts that they need to instead have a party, suggesting Alice Cooper as entertainment. Barnabas agrees and they throw a party for the entire town at their mansion, at which Alice Cooper indeed performs. On a balcony outside of the party, Barnabas finds Victoria, to whom he expresses his love. She explains her past to him though. It is then revealed through flashbacks that Victoria was sent to a mental hospital by her parents for talking to the ghost of Barnabas' love, Josette, who she strongly resembles. She is seen getting electroshock treatment as a child, then escaping through the window with sheets years later. They passionately kiss after she says she feels like she has always known him. Angelique crashes the party and sees Barnabas and Victoria kissing, becoming enraged. The next day, Barnabas discovers Dr. Hoffman is not giving him human blood, but taking several pints of his blood instead to turn herself into a vampire to avoid growing old. Enraged, Barnabas presumably kills her by draining her dry and dumps her body in the ocean with Willie's help. He then discovers David's sleazy father Roger snooping around the study, trying to find the secret room. Barnabas gives him a choice: stay and be a father or leave; Roger chooses the latter. Right after Roger leaves, Barnabas accidentally stands in a beam of sunlight after saving David from a falling disco ball and his skin burns. His secret is revealed to the children and Victoria and they are horrified.

Barnabas meets with Angelique that night and refuses her offer once more to cooperate with her to run the town, also refusing to return her love. While leaving her office, he is forced into a coffin waiting for him right outside her door, and Angelique then binds him with chains and drives him to the cemetery, leaving the coffin in a crypt and telling Barnabas she will destroy everything he loves. Just before driving to the cemetery, she blows up the rebuilt Collins canning factory by reciting a spell. While the fire is still raging, David learns from his mother that Barnabas has been locked up and where to find him. David goes to the crypt and frees Barnabas from the coffin. While the police and firefighters try to put out the fire, Angelique plays a cassette recording she recorded during her last meeting with Barnabas in which he confesses to being a vampire and killing the construction workers, the hippies, and Dr. Hoffman, revealing that the Collins family is harboring a murderer. This turns the townspeople against the family once more, leading them to the mansion. At the mansion, Angelique is shocked to see that Barnabas has escaped. Barnabas offers to be arrested in place of the family, but then grabs Angelique, prompting a policeman to shoot him several times. Revealed as immortal, he then shows the townspeople Angelique is a witch: as he squeezes her, her skin cracks like porcelain. The townspeople run away from the mansion in horror. Angelique starts a fight and sets fire to the mansion, bringing the wooden statues and portraits to life and making blood run down the walls from them, as well as splintering the walls of the building. Carolyn, who is revealed as being a werewolf (because Angelique had sent a werewolf to bite her as a baby), fights her, but is beaten back. Elizabeth, armed with a shotgun, stands up to Angelique, and David summons the ghost of his mother Laura (whom Angelique admits killing), who throws her into the chandelier. Angelique, her porcelain skin fracturing, literally offers her heart to Barnabas, insisting she did in fact love him, but he refuses, telling her she isn't capable of love and only wanted to control him. Upon being rejected by Barnabas, her heart literally breaks and she dies. Barnabas looks for Victoria, who hasn't been seen since it was revealed that he was a vampire. David tells him that his mother said she is headed for Widow's Peak. Barnabas catches up with her there, but Victoria tells him that they can never be together as she lives in the light and he lives in the dark shadows. Angelique's spell makes Victoria jump over the cliff. Barnabas jumps off after her and bites her on the way down, turning her into a vampire to save her life. Afterward, Victoria tells Barnabas to call her Josette, and Barnabas narrates that his curse has ended. The film then ends underwater, with a school of fish swimming away from the body of Dr. Hoffman, who opens her eyes, revealing that she too is now a vampire.

Cast

• Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, an 18th-century vampire who awakens to the 20th century. Thomas McDonell was scheduled to play the young version of Barnabas, but did not appear in the film.
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the family matriarch.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, Elizabeth's hired live-in psychiatrist.
• Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard, a vengeful witch who plots a vendetta against Barnabas and his family.
• Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis, the manor's caretaker.
• Jonny Lee Miller as Roger Collins, Elizabeth's "ne'er-do-well" brother.
• Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winters, David's governess and Barnabas' love interest. Heathcote also plays the role of Josette du Pres; Victoria and Maggie Evans' roles, separate in the series, were combined in the film.
• Chloë Grace Moretz as Carolyn Stoddard, Elizabeth's rebellious teenage daughter.
• Gulliver McGrath as David Collins, Roger's "precocious" 10-year-old son.
• Ray Shirley as Mrs. Johnson, the manor's elderly maid.
• Christopher Lee as Silas Clarney, a "king of the fishermen who spends a lot of time in the local pub, The Blue Whale.
• Alice Cooper as himself.
• Ivan Kaye as Joshua Collins, the father of Barnabas Collins.
• Susanna Cappellaro as Naomi Collins, the mother of Barnabas Collins.
• William Hope as Sheriff Bill of Collinsport

At the San Diego Comic-Con 2011, it was also confirmed that four actors from the original series appear in the film. In June 2011, Jonathan Frid, Lara Parker, David Selby and Kathryn Leigh Scott all spent three days at Pinewood Studios to film cameo appearances. They all appeared as party guests during a ball held at Collinwood Manor. Frid died in April 2012, making this his final film appearance.

Production

Dark Shadows is directed by Tim Burton based on a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith. In July 2007, Warner Bros. acquired film rights for the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows from the estate of its creator Dan Curtis. Actor Johnny Depp stars in the film. The project's development was delayed by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. After the strike was resolved, Tim Burton was attached to direct the film. By 2009, screenwriter John August was writing a screenplay for Dark Shadows. In 2010, author and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith replaced August in writing the screenplay. August, did, however, receive story credit with Smith for his contribution to the film. Filming began in May 2011. It was filmed entirely in England, at both Pinewood Studios and on location. Depp attempted to emulate the "rigidity" and "elegance" of Jonathan Frid's original Barnabas Collins, but also drew inspiration from Max Schreck's performance in Nosferatu.

Additional crew members and Burton regulars are production designer Rick Heinrichs, costume designer Colleen Atwood, editor Chris Lebenzon and composer Danny Elfman. French cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel — known for his work in Amélie, A Very Long Engagement and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — worked on the project.

Marketing

The trailer for the film premiered exclusively on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on March 15, 2012. That same day, the trailer made its online debut on Apple.com. According to MTV, Tim Burton has opted "for gonzo comedy that should please many, but may rile fans of the original soap opera.

Music

The film was again scored by long-time Burton collaborator, Danny Elfman. An album featuring 21 tracks of compositions from the film by Elfman was released on May 8, 2012.

The soundtrack features a score of several contemporaneous 1970s rock and pop songs, along with others from later and slightly earlier, including "Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues, "Top of the World" by The Carpenters, "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" by Barry White, "I'm Sick of You" by Iggy Pop, "Get It On" by T. Rex and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. Alice Cooper, who makes a cameo in the film, sings "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "Ballad of Dwight Fry". A cover of the Raspberries' song "Go All the Way" by The Killers also plays over the end credits. The soundtrack will be released on May 18 in Australia, and May 22 elsewhere.

Reception

Box office

As of May 17, 2012, the film has grossed $36,449,053 in the United States, along with $36,700,000 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $73,149,053.

Critical response

Dark Shadows has received mixed to negative reviews from film critics, with a current "rotten" percentage of 42% and an average rating of 5.4/10 on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 189 reviews. Reviewers have praised the acting and the background stories of the characters, but have negatively received the direction and storyline, with the Rotten Tomatoes consensus reading: "The visuals are top notch but Tim Burton never finds a consistent rhythm, mixing campy jokes and gothic spookiness with less success than other Johnny Depp collaborations." Metacritic gives the film a score of 56% based on 38 reviews.

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