Dark Shadows (film)

• Main
• YMMV
• Crowners
  • Awesome
  • Funny
  • Heartwarming
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New

The vampire is the most normal one in this family.

Dark Shadows is a movie adaptation of the TV series of the same name by Tim Burton, with Johnny Depp realizing his childhood dream of portraying the Affably Evil Barnabas Collins, who's been turned into a vampire by Angelique, a witch, for rejecting her love. He is locked in an iron coffin and buried alive. He escapes 200 years later in the early seventies, and goes to help out his declining family's descendants and confront Angelique once more.

Released in the Summer of 2012. Unlike the series, the film is more comedic in tone, similar to early Burton films such as Beetlejuice.

---

Tropes used in Dark Shadows (film) include:

• Actor Shared Background: Eva Green shares Angelique's French origins.
• Affectionate Parody: To the original Dark Shadows series, as well as soap opera twists and turns in general.
• Adaptational Villainy: Julia Hoffman, who has her own not-entirely-reputable reasons for "curing" Barnabas this time around. See Sequel Hook.
• The Ageless: Angelique is perpetually young thanks to her witchcraft.
• The Alcoholic: Willie Loomis, the manor's caretaker (Jackie Earle Haley), and Dr. Julia Hoffman, the live-in psychiatrist (Helena Bonham Carter).
• All-Star Cast: Let's see, there's Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jonny Lee Miller, Christopher Lee and Alice Cooper.
• And I Must Scream: Barnabas is trapped in a coffin for 200 years.
• Anti-Hero: Barnabas is a Type IV. While he is apologetic, he has few qualms about murdering numerous innocent people to satisfy his vampiric Blood Lust, or ensnaring minions in pursuit of his goals. On the positive side, he also has a strong sense of familial devotion, doing everything in his power to enrich and protect his descendants. And his love for Victoria is genuine.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Barnabas converses in a most quaint and peculiar 18th-century verbiage.
• Apologetic Attacker: Barnabas apologizes both times before murdering two packs of innocent people. He voices regret to at least one of construction workers, but explains that after 200 years, he's very thirsty.
• As Himself: Alice Cooper - though nobody accounts for why he looks 40 years older than he should have been. A bit of Self-Deprecation there : Cooper's cameo was originally supposed to be a CG representation of his younger self, but Cooper thought he looked uglier then than he did now, and decided to stand in himself.
• Beat Still My Heart: As Angelique is defeated by the ghost of David's mother, she plunges her hand into her shattered chest, pulls out her still-beating heart, and shows it to Barnabas in a last desperate attempt to make him feel something for her. It doesn't work, the heart evaporates and she dies.
• The Beautiful Elite: Barnabas, Josette.
• Bedsheet Ghost: Double Subverted. The first time Victoria sees a "ghost", it's very obviously David trying to scare her. The second time, when she thinks it's David again... there is a very real specter underneath the sheets. She's neither surprised nor scared though, since she's known this ghost since her childhood.
• Betty and Veronica: Barnabas with Maggie/Victoria (Betty) and Angelique (Veronica).
• Big Bad: Angelique.
• Big Screwed-Up Family / Dysfunctional Family: The Collins in the 70's. Mostly because Angelique has been secretly messing with the family for nearly 200 years.
• Birds of a Feather: This exchange happens prior to Barnabas biting Angelique and drinking her blood, kicking off the Final Battle once she blasts him away from her.

Angelique: Go on, slaughter me. Show them who you are. Barnabas: No... I shall show them who we are.

• Bittersweet Ending: Angelique is dead and Barnabas succeeds in turning Victoria/Maggie into a vampire so that they can be together forever, but Collinwood Manor and the fishery are burned to the ground and the Collins family are now even less liked by the townsfolk.
• Black Comedy: What this mostly is, though there's also tragedy, horror and romance elements scattered throughout.
• Black and Gray Morality: Barnabas kills many innocent people (to feed his bloodlust) and freely uses mind control to force others to serve him. But Angelique is considerably worse, spending two whole centuries tormenting a family simply because Barnabas rejected her.
• Blessed with Suck: Maggie, whose ability to talk to ghosts is misunderstood by her parents, leading to her institutionalization.
• Blondes Are Evil: The 1970s Angelique (she originally had brown hair).
• Bookcase Passage / Secret Underground Passage: You didn't expect a haunted old manor to have one of these, did you? Also Discussed and Lampshaded.
• Book Ends: Barnabas begins and ends the movie with monologues about how blood is Thicker Than Water. Also leaping off the cliff after his love interest does the same.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Carolyn. Bratty, teen, and a werewolf.
• Brick Joke: In the movie's prologue, the "M" in Mephistopheles' name looks suspiciously like the McDonald's "M." After Barnabas is unearthed in 1972, he looks up and exclaims "Mephistopheles!" as he sees a McDonald's sign.
• Broken Bird: Maggie/ Victoria. She gets better though.
• Buried Alive: Well, Barnabas is a vampire so technically he's undead, but it certainly counts.
• The Cameo: Alice Cooper.
  • Christopher Lee shows up too, playing the aged fisherman Barnabas hypnotizes. Tim Burton frequently casts him in supporting roles; Christopher previously played the judge who sends Johnny to Sleepy Hollow, and Johnny's father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He also voiced Pastor Gallswells in Corpse Bride, and the Jabberwocky in Alice in Wonderland.
    • Not to mention playing Dracula in the Hammer film series. The theater in Collinsport is even showing his film Dracula A.D. 1972.
• Casting Gag: Some people probably laughed upon finding out Chloë Grace Moretz was playing a werewolf.
• Catapult Nightmare: Victoria dreams of being committed.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: The movie starts off dark, then swiftly becomes more and more comedic until the final showdown, which is very creepy, dramatic, and almost devoid of humorous moments.
• Charm Person: One of Barnabas' abilities. Also Angelique, who caused Josette's suicide with a spell. She uses the same spell on Maggie/Victoria at the end.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Angelique flaunts one as she says, "Hello, Barnabas. Remember me?"
• The Colonial Period: The story starts at the end of this period, shortly before The American Revolution.
• Composite Character: This film's Victoria Winters is both the original Victoria and Maggie Evans. Serves as a Mythology Gag as during the original series, both characters were identified as the reincarnation of Josette at different times.
  • Also, Angelique is both the original Angelique and Burke Devlin, who, in the first season of the original series, was building up a rival fishery to bring down the Collins family out of revenge. Of course, having had 200 years (and magic), Angelique is far more successful.
• Creepy Long Fingers: Barnabas develops these when Angelique curses him to become a vampire.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Inverted. After having been smashed against a chandelier, the villainous Angelique dies in a crucifixion pose.
• Cry for the Devil: One may feel sympathy towards Angelique - sure, her actions have been downright evil and she's a Manipulative Bastard, but she's also been repeatedly rejected by Barnabas and according to him, she "cannot love".
• Cursed with Awesome:
  • Barnabas. Sure he can't endure sunlight, but he's gained immortality and vampiric powers.
  • Carolyn, who's been turned into a werewolf.
• A Date with Rosie Palms: While arguing at the table, David mentions that Carolyn touches herself and moans 'like a kitten'.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight considering what Carolyn morphs into during the climax.
• Denser and Wackier
• Deadpan Snarker: Barnabas.
  • Elizabeth too.

(About Dr. Hoffman) "She's probably sleeping off one of her legendary hangovers."

• • Everyone really.
• Death Glare: Angelique does this many times. As does Barnabas when he's really mad at someone.
• Destructive Romance: Angelique's desire for Barnabas is ultimately what breaks her and leads to her demise.
• Destructo-Nookie: Barnabas and Angelique trash the latter's office while making love.
• Didn't See That Coming: Unless you picked up on the very subtle Foreshadowing, Carolyn being unveiled as a werewolf probably came a bit out of nowhere.
• Dug Too Deep: Barnabas is released when his coffin is dug up by construction workers.
• Easily Forgiven: Whilst not quite forgiven, you'd think that Barnabas would be a bit more angry at Angelique for locking him in a coffin for 200 - no, wait, 196 years.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Both Barnabas and David Collins. And Victoria after being turned into a vampire.
• Electric Torture: Maggie was treated by electroshock therapy when she was confined in a mental hospital.
• Emergency Transformation: Barnabas bites Maggie and transforms her into a vampire to save her from a fall off the cliff at the end.
• Engineered Public Confession: Angelique records Barnabas' confession of killing the construction workers and the hippies, and plays it out loud to the crowd gathering near the burning Collins factory (which she destroyed using black magic).
• Europeans Are Kinky: Angelique has French origins, and boy is she straightforward in sexual matters.
• Everyone Looks Sexier If French: Angelique's French origins may have something to do with her being presented as a smolderingly hot seductress.
• Evil Is Hammy: Angelique is by far the largest ham in the movie.
• Fake American: Played with and justified in-universe. At the beginning, Angelique speaks with a French accent, but develops an American pronunciation to help her blend in the ever-changing society. Barnabas, on the other hand, missed out the last 200 years of the language's evolution in America, and still speaks like a Brit.
  • Helena Bonham Carter plays this straight and does an excellent job with the accent.
• Fantastic Romance: Barnabas and Angelique/Victoria/Dr. Hoffmann.
• Femme Fatale: Angelique, again.
• Femme Fatalons: Angelique's. Barnabas has the male version.
• Final Battle: In which Carolyn is revealed to be a werewolf, Angelique is killed by the ghost of David's mother, and Collinswood Manor is destroyed.
• Fish Out of Temporal Water: Barnabas. His responses to the notoriously-tacky 70s is a major source of the movie's humor.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Dr. Hoffmann falls for her patient Barnabas. Later subverted, as it's revealed that she is more interested in his vampire blood than his personality.
• Foe Yay: Stacks of it with Barnabas and Angelique. They hate each other, but quite obviously lust for each other.
• Foreshadowing: Carolyn being a werewolf: The first time we see Carolyn she's wearing a very short dress (when she transforms her legs change so much they rip her tights); the second time she's eating under a painting of a full moon and her cousin says she makes animal noises at night.
  • Dr. Hoffman becoming a vampire (tenuous): She's always wearing red and she's always thirsty.
• Freaky Is Cool: Of all people, David likes Barnabas the most.
• French Jerk: Angelique is a rare female example.
• French Maid: Played with. 18th-century Angelique lacks the uniform, but has the flirtatious attitude associated with the stereotype.
• Funny Foreigner: Barnabas comes off as this due to a combination of Fish Out of Temporal Water and his Fake Brit accent.
• Fur Against Fang: Played with. It's werewolf vs. witch, and the werewolf is fighting on the vampire's side.
• Gender Blender Name: Alice Cooper is the "ugliest woman" Barnabas has ever seen.
• The Good Guys Always Win: Although would've been a Eucatastrophe, if not for the ghost of David's mother.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Angelique.
• Haunted Heroine: Maggie/Victoria, quite literally.
• Haunted House
• Have a Gay Old Time: Barnabas suggests the Collins family throw a ball. Cue "We always had the biggest, most wonderful balls" and "This family could use some balls".
• Hollywood New England: Both flavors (refined but decaying "Codfish Aristocracy" and gruff fishermen).
• Hot Witch: Angelique.
• Identical Grandson: Maggie is probably a descendant of Josette's family, hence the resemblance between the two and the fact that Maggie can see the ghost of Josette.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Probably what Angelique was thinking when she locked Barnabas in that coffin; the first and second time.
• If I Can't Have You

Angelique: If I can't have you, I'll destroy you. And your family.

• I See Dead People: Maggie/Victoria and David.
• Immortality Immorality: Angelique is over 200 years old, perpetually young, and deeply depraved. Barnabas, although much less of a jerk, still uses very immoral methods (mind control, killing, etc.) to further his agenda.
• Interspecies Romance: Barnabas/Angelique; Barnabas/Victoria
• Is It Something You Eat?: Barnabas thinks a psychiatrist is an American delicacy at first.
• Julius Beethoven Da Vinci: Played with. To cover up her immortality, Angelique always poses as the head of the Bouchard family, changing names and appearances every generation or so.
• Lady Drunk: Dr. Julia Hoffman.
• Lady in Red: Angelique turns up to the Collins' Ball looking absolutely stunning in a sequined red dress.
• Lecherous Licking: Made creepier by the fact that Angelique has a long, snake-like tongue.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Color Coded for Your Convenience - Victoria (the light feminine) is usually seen wearing pastels, in contrast to Angelique (the dark feminine) who wears mostly black and midnight blue.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Maggie Evans thinks her real name will not impress the Collins so she looks for another name, sees an advertisement for the Winter Olympics in Victoria, British Columbia, and renames herself Victoria Winters.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Angelique seems to be made of some sort of ceramic and shatters progressively during the climatic fight.
• Living Statue: In the final showdown, Angelique's sorcery animates the wooden carvings in Collinwood estate.
• Looks Like Cesare: Johnny Depp, as usual. Maggie / Victoria at the end.
• Lovecraft Country: It's Maine. Nothing supernatural ever happens round here. Right, Steve?
• Love Hungry: Angelique regarding Barnabas.
• Love Makes You Evil / Love Makes You Crazy: Angelique.
• Love Triangle: Barnabas is in love with Maggie/Victoria, but also has a sizzling relationship with Angelique, who is still in love with him after 196 years (cue the massive amounts of Foe Yay and UST).
• Madonna-Whore Complex: Josette and Victoria are the virtuous, conservatively dressed, asexual good girls. Angelique is the cleavage-baring, sexually aggressive villainess.
• Mama Bear: In the climatic fight, Elizabeth wields a shotgun against Angelique to protect her family.
  • The ghost of David's mother. She may be deceased, but if you threaten her child, she'll hit you with one hell of a banshee shriek.
• Mayfly-December Romance: Alluded to by Victoria at the end as an obstacle to her relationship with Barnabas.
• Mind Control: One of the perks of being a vampire is that you can do this.
• "Mister Sandman" Sequence: Barnabas visiting Collinsport for the first time in 196 years, in 1972.
• Monster Mash: Vampires, witches, ghosts, and werewolves.
• Mood Whiplash: After a very serious opening, the film morphs into a Black Comedy. However, the film does switch back to a darker tone at times.
• Move Along, Nothing to See Here: Said almost word-for-word by the sheriff when the supernatural stuff really shows itself in the final act.
• Ms. Fanservice: Eva Green as the very sexy Angelique Bouchard. Even Chloë Grace Moretz has a scene where she shows some leg.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Angelique hypnotizes Josette and forces her to fall off the cliffs.
• Neck Lift: Barnabas has a tendency to do this.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers play up the broad comedy and Fish Out of Temporal Water aspects of the film and make Barnabas look more like a straightforward (if quirky) hero rather than Anti-Hero he is. The Maggie/Victoria plot is also never alluded to.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Barnabas and Angelique do not pull any punches during their climatic fight.
• Not Good with Rejection: After Barnabas rejects her love, Angelique goes on to Murder the Hypotenuse (see above), curse Barnabas to be a vampire, lock him in a coffin for almost 200 years, and spend those consequent 200 years sabotaging his family for revenge.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Angelique is shown to be wearing one back in the late 18th century as she is casting the spell to cause Josette to fall from Widow's Peak.
• One-Scene Wonder: Christopher Lee as Clarney.
  • Alice Cooper As Himself.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Barnabas fits the classic definition. Sunlight and silver make him spontaneously combustive.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Carolyn takes on a mostly human form with big hairy wolf legs, sharp teeth, golden eyes, and claws. Also, it seems she can transform at will.
  • Or the final fight probably happened during a full moon.
• Overly Long Tongue: Angelique.
• Papa Wolf: Although the Collins family are not his direct descendants, Barnabas takes their safety very seriously and will defend them whatever the cost.
• Parental Abandonment: After witnessing Maggie talking to what they think is an Imaginary Friend (the ghost of Josette actually), her parents sent her to a mental hospital when she was a child.
  • When Roger tries to find Barnabas' hidden treasure, Barnabas catches him, reveals his strength, and gives him two options: become a decent father to David or leave. Roger chooses the latter.
• The Patriarch: Barnabas feels honor-bound to protect his family and ensure their prosperity, and tries to assume this role. Of course, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard is filling this role as The Matriarch before Barnabas arrives.
• Pivotal Wakeup: Barnabas from his coffin.
• Played for Laughs: Barnabas killing the hippies in the forest.
• Politically-Correct History: Apparently, Angelique managed to successfully run a business for 200 years despite all legal limitations and social prejudice placed on woman entrepreneurs. Justified since it's implied she has the same power to charm and entrance people like Barnabas does.
• The Power of Blood: Unsurprisingly, a major theme.
• Product Placement: Lampshaded beautifully when the first thing Barnabas sees upon release from his coffin is the iconic McDonald's Golden Arches:

Barnabas: Mephistopheles!

• • Wheaties are awfully prominent on the Collins's breakfast table.
• Promoted Fanboy: Johnny Depp. Tim Burton, too.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Angelique is portrayed as a Complete Monster for the way she terrorizes Barnabas and his family; but Barnabas' unethical actions (such as mind control and murder) tend to be glossed over.
• Psychotic Lover: Angelique, and how.
• Psychotic Smirk: Angelique can be seen to be wearing one as she excuses herself to march into Collinswood Manor and face off against Barnabas in what would be the Final Battle.
• Really 200 Years Old: Angelique. And Barnabas, of course.
• Reincarnation Romance: Barnabas finally ends up with Maggie, in whom Josette is apparently reincarnated.
• Remake Cameo: Jonathan Frid, Lara Parker, David Selby and Kathryn Leigh Scott, who played Barnabas Collins, Angelique, Quentin Collins and Josette DuPres in the original Dark Shadows, appear in the ball at Collinwood Manor. This was the last role for Jonathan Frid, who died less than a month before the film opened.
• The Renfield: Willie the butler becomes this after Barnabas hypnotizes him.
• The Reveal: The climatic fight reveals that Carolyn is a werewolf.
• Revenge by Proxy: Angelique has spent the last two hundred years ruining the Collins family as revenge against Barnabas for spurning her. When he escapes his coffin, she steps up her efforts.
• Scenery Porn: Copious beautiful shots of woods, lakes, and cliffs. Also the interior of the mansion.
• Sequel Hook: In the final scene of the film, Dr Hoffman is shown underwater opening her eyes, implying she was successfully turned into a vampire and thus will probably be back to give Barnabas grief. For fun, this scene recalls a shot of the drowned Shelley Winters, in 1955's Night of the Hunter.
• The Seventies: Turned Up to Eleven.
• Shaggy Search Technique: Roger unsuccessfully attempts this to find the hidden treasure room. Barnabas is not amused.
• Ship Sinking: Barnabas and Angelique, when she dies after being attacked by the ghost of David's mother.
• Ship Tease: A lot between Barnabas and Angelique.
• Shout-Out:
  • At one point Angelique spews out green vomit at Barnabas, as the possessed Regan did in The Exorcist.
  • During the finale, part of the staircase comes alive as a snakelike beast, similar to Beetlejuice.
  • Dr. Hoffman and Barnabas have a conversation about how filthy and disgusting life in England was. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were the two leads in Sweeney Todd, which is set in such a place in London.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Angelique gives Barnabas one in an early scene between them, leaving a lipstick mark around his mouth.
• Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: Bella Heathcote gets a few seconds as Josette and none as Victoria.
• Smoking Hot Sex: Angelique lights up afterwards.
• Supernatural Proof Mother: Elizabeth, to the point of hiring a psychologist to examine David. And then came Barnabas...
• Table Space: Carolyn eats at the far end of the table.
• Title Drop: Once, by Barnabas.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Collinsport. The curse surrounding the Collins family is, however, unknown to the townsfolk.
• Trash the Set: Collinwood manor burns to the ground during Barnabas and Angelique's Final Battle.
  • Johnny Depp mentions in an interview that the filming of his and Eva Green's sex scene resulted in a lot of trashed hotel rooms.
• Vampire Bites Suck: No other way of putting it.
• Vampire Vannabe: Dr. Hoffman is using Barnabas' blood to turn herself into a vampire in order to stop her aging.
• Vampires Are Rich: In his life, Barnabas was the heir of an affluent colonial family. Over time, the family fortune dwindled, but fortunately Barnabas' father left behind some treasure.
• Vampires Are Sex Gods: Barnabas used to be quite handsome and knew his way with the ladies. His undead appearance may be freaky and creepy, but he still has romantic encounters of varying depth with three female characters.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Angelique.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Angelique vomits green, bug-filled slime onto Barnabas a la The Exorcist.
• Wall-Bang Her: And ceiling, couch, and floor bang her.
• We Can Rule Together: Angelique tells Barnabas several times she likes the idea of the two of them ruling over Collinsport together as two super-powered immortals, but he refuses.

Angelique: I'm going to offer you a business proposal, Barnabas. My final offer; either you agree to rule this little pond of mine side by side, partners and lovers...Or I put you back in the box. Barnabas: I have already prepared my counter-proposal. It reads thusly: You may strategically place your wonderful lips upon my posterior and kiss it repeatedly!

• Weakened by the Light: Barnabas actually catches fire when exposed to the sunlight for a relatively short period of time.
• What Year Is This?: Uttered verbatim by Barnabas.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Barnabas can't endure the idea of seeing Victoria age and die, so he asks Angelique to turn him back into a mortal. She refuses, naturally. The problem is solved at the end, when he bites Victoria to save her from a fatal fall.
• Wizards Live Longer: Angelique is a witch, and hasn't aged a day in 196 years.
• Woman Scorned: The entire plot is put in motion by Barnabas refusing Angelique's love.
• World of Ham
• Yandere: Angelique. Good lord, Angelique. She sets out to ruin an entire family simply because her beloved spurns her advances.
• You Shall Not Pass: Willie tries pulling this on Angelique during the climax. However, she simply knocks him aside without even breaking her stride.