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Dark Shadows is a 2012 American horror comedy film, based on the gothic soap opera of the same name that was produced for television between 1966 and 1971. The film is directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a 200-year-old vampire who has been imprisoned in a coffin. Collins is eventually unearthed and makes his way back to his mansion, now inhabited by his dysfunctional descendants. Collins also discovers that his jealous ex-lover, Angelique Bouchard, played by Eva Green, has taken over the town's fishing business that was once run by the Collins family (Bouchard is a witch who was responsible for transforming Collins into a vampire). Michelle Pfeiffer also stars as Collins' cousin, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the reclusive matriarch of the Collins family.
The film had a limited release on May 10, 2012,[4] and was officially released the following day in the United States.
The film was moderate box office success with profit of $89,127,149, and received mixed to negative reviews from critics, many of whom praised its visual style, but felt it lacked a focused or substantial plot and developed characters. The film marks Richard D. Zanuck's last as producer; he died on July 13, 2012. It also featured the final film appearance of original series actor Jonathan Frid, who died before Zanuck on April 14. He shared a cameo in the movie with former co-stars Kathryn Leigh Scott, David Selby, and Lara Parker.
Produced by: Richard D. Zanuck, Graham King, Johnny Depp, Christi Dembrowski, David Kennedy
Screenplay by: Seth Grahame-Smith
Story by: John August, Seth Grahame-Smith
Based on: Dark Shadows by Dan Curtis
Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bella Heathcote, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green
Music by: Danny Elfman
Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel
Editing by: Chris Lebenzon,
Studio: Village Roadshow Pictures, Infinitum Nihil, GK Films, The Zanuck Company
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s): May 11, 2012
Running time: 113 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $150 million
Box office: $238,727,149
Story
In 1760, the Collins family migrates to America from Liverpool and sets up a fishing port in Maine, naming it Collinsport. 14 years later, the son, Barnabas (Johnny Depp), has an affair with a maid, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), who is a witch infatuated with him since childhood. When he tells her he doesn't love or want her, Angelique kills his parents. Barnabas then falls in love with Josette du Pres (Bella Heathcote). In a fit of jealousy, Angelique bewitches Josette into leaping from a cliff to her death. Barnabas leaps after her in grief, but he survives because Angelique turns him into an immortal vampire. She rouses a mob to capture and bury Barnabas alive in a chained coffin in the woods and curses his family.
196 years later, in the year 1972, construction workers accidentally free Barnabas from his coffin, who reluctantly slakes his two-century thirst by feeding on and killing his rescuers. He makes his way back to his manor to find it inhabited by his dysfunctional descendants and their servants—the family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer); her brother Roger (Jonny Lee Miller); her 15-year-old daughter Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz); Roger's 10-year-old son David (Gulliver McGrath); Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), David's psychiatrist; Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley), the manor's caretaker; and Victoria Winters (Heathcote), David's newly-hired governess and Josette's reincarnation. Upon convincing Elizabeth of his identity by revealing a secret treasure room behind the fireplace, Barnabas is allowed to stay under the condition that he never reveal either the room or the fact that he is a vampire to the rest of the family. At breakfast, Elizabeth makes him out to be "Barnabas Collins III", a distant relative from England who has come to restore the family's business and reputation in town. Barnabas becomes very deeply attracted to Victoria on sight, whom he briefly mistakes for his lost Josette, and immediately begins to pursue her romantically.
As Barnabas helps revitalize the Collins' fishery and manor, he is approached by Angelique, who has used her powers to establish a successful rival fishery, called Angel Bay, and live through the decades by posing as her own descendants. She tries to win him back, later convincing him to make wild, passionate love with her, but he still rejects her, as he loves Victoria. He continues to restore his family's name by inviting the entire town to a party at the manor featuring Alice Cooper (whom Barnabas mistakes for a female), where Victoria reveals to Barnabas that her parents committed her to an insane asylum, (under her real name "Maggie Evans"), as a child because she could see and talk to a invisible friend, (Josette's ghost). They kiss and confess their feelings to each other, unknowingly enraging Angelique who has witnessed the scene.
Meanwhile, Dr. Hoffman has discovered Barnabas' true nature after hypnotizing him. She convinces him to try a experimental procedure to become a regular human again via blood transfusions, but her real intent is to use his blood to become a vampire to avoid aging. Upon discovering this betrayal, Barnabas drains her to death and dumps her in the ocean. Barnabas catches Roger trying to find the secret room and exposes Roger's lack of interest in his son. Barnabas makes him chose between being a good father to David, or leaving the family with sufficient funding to satisfy his greed. Roger chooses to leave, deeply wounding his son's feelings. Immediately afterwards, Barnabas rescues David from a falling disco ball and stumbles into a beam of sunlight, burning his skin and exposing his secret to the horrified children and Victoria.
Later that night, Angelique calls Barnabas into her office, coaxes him into confessing Dr. Hoffman's murder, and traps him in another coffin that she leaves in his family's crypt until she decides to let him out again. She then burns down the Collins' canning factory and plays a recording of the murder confession to the police and gathered townsfolk, once more turning them against the family. Angie leads the mob to Collinwood to arrest the family, but Barnabas is rescued from the coffin by David and shows up at the manor, attacking her in front of the mob, thereby exposing both his and her true natures. As the townspeople disperse, Angelique sets fire to the manor and admits her role in the family's curse, including turning Carolyn into a werewolf and killing David's mother at sea. Barnabas and the Collins family fight Angelique until David summons his mother's vengeful ghost. The ghost gives a single scream which knocks Angelique into a chandelier.
Before she dies she pulls out her heart and offers it to Barnabas; he refuses the heart, trying to make her admit she didn't really love him, she just wanted to possess him, and it shatters as Angelique dies. Barnabas then discovers that Angelique has bewitched Victoria into jumping off of Widow's Peek, the same cliff Josette did. Barnabas arrives moments before Victoria is about to jump and breaks her hypnosis, but she reveals she wanted to fall. She pleads with him to make her a vampire so that they can remain together forever, but he refuses. She then casts herself off, forcing him to follow and bite her to save her life, and Victoria wakes up as a vampire. As the two kiss on the rocks in the waves, the film ends with an underwater scene showing a school of fish swimming away from Hoffman, who suddenly revives due to managing to make it far enough into the transfusions.
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