An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection.
In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet-or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy...until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.—Warner Bros. Pictures
A 1970's gothic-horror tale centering on the life of Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) who had entombed for 196 years by a jilted lover, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), a witch that also cursed him by making Barnabas a vampire so he would have to live forever with the memory of having spurned her and causing the death of of his true love, Josette. Barnabas has run-ins with various monsters, witches, werewolves and ghosts. Based on the popular 'Dark Shadows' Television series created by Dan Curtis and dedicated to his memory.—Michael of [email protected]
Having spurned the love of the wrong woman--the inconspicuous but powerful witch, Angelique Bouchard--the shameless philanderer and 18th-century aristocrat, Barnabas Collins, finds himself buried alive in Collinsport's cold ground. Cursed to roam the earth as an eternal vampire, Barnabas is unintentionally unearthed some two hundred years later, in 1972, only to discover that his once-enviable palatial estate has fallen into decay, whereas the heartless sorceress, Angie, is as fresh as ever. Under those circumstances, can Barnabas restore the Collins family to its former glory--and in the meantime--get even with Angelique?—Nick Riganas
An ancient male vampire returns home to his descendants who he did not know about. As he gets to know his descendants, he quickly realizes that they are in danger of an old enemy from his past. He must do everything that he can to protect them.—RECB3
In 1760, the Collins family migrates to America from Liverpool and sets up a fishing port in Maine, naming it Collinsport. Some years later, the son, Barnabas (Johnny Depp), seduces his family's maid, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), who is a witch. When he tells her he doesn't love or want her, Angelique kills Barnabas' 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 slakes his two-century hunger 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 (Chloe 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 neither the room nor that he is a vampire to the rest of the family. He must also pretend to be a distant relative from England who has come to restore the family's business and reputation in town. He soon becomes very deeply attracted to Victoria, whom he briefly mistakes for his lost Josette, and immediately begins to pursue her.
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. She tries to win him back, later convincing him to make wild, passionate love with her, but he still rejects her, telling her that he loves Victoria instead. He restores his family's name by inviting the entire town to a party at the manor featuring Alice Cooper, where Victoria reveals to Barnabas that her parents committed her to an insane asylum as a child because she could see and talk to 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 to turn himself back to a regular human via blood transfusions, but her real intent is to use his blood to turn herself into a vampire to avoid aging. Upon discovering this betrayal, Barnabas drains her to death and dumps her body into the ocean. Barnabas catches Roger trying to find the secret room and exposes Roger's lack of interest in his son. Barnabas then gives him a choice of either staying and being a good father to David or leaving the family. Roger chooses to leave, deeply wounding his son's feelings. Soon afterward, 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. 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. Angelique leads the mob to Collinwood manor to arrest the family, but Barnabas is rescued from the coffin by David, and he shows up at the manor and attacks Angelique 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, and it shatters as Angelique dies. Barnabas then discovers that Angelique has bewitched Victoria into jumping off 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, 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 kisses 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.
