Dark Shadows

In the year 1760, the Collins family leaves Liverpool and sails to Maine, New England to expand the family empire. They start an incredibly successful fishing business that allows them to establish the town of Collinsport and their own grand estate, Collinwood. Even If their money grows, the owner makes sure that his son, Barnabas Collins, is raised knowing that family always comes first. Fifteen years later, Barnabas has an affair with one of the family's servants, Angelique, who is secretly a witch. When she asks him for his love and not just his body, Barnabas tells her he doesn't feel that way about her, so as revenge, she casts a spell to kill his parents. Barnabas suspects something dark caused such an accident, so he starts to investigate the dark arts while he begins a relationship with Josette du Pres . Angelique overhears them declaring their love for each other and gets jealous, so she uses her magic again to make Josette jump off a cliff. Unable to save her in time, Barnabas jumps after her, but unlike Josette, he does survive the fall because Angelique has cursed him to become a vampire so that his suffering would never end. Then she gathers an angry mob of townspeople, turns them against Barnabas by pointing out he's a monster, and together they all catch him and lock him inside a coffin that they then bury in the forest. Years later, in 1972, Victoria Winters is on a train ride to Collinsport because she's seen an ad from the Collins family looking for a governess. Victoria isn't her real name, but she's running away from home and doesn't want people to know their real identity, so chooses Victoria from a poster on the train. When she arrives at the estate, she's received by Willie Loomis, the caretaker, who explains that the mansion, which isn't in a good condition nowadays, should have service of a hundred servants, but it's just him and Mrs. Johnson. At that moment, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the family matriarch, shows up and speaks privately with Victoria to explain the job to her. After mentioning that it's just seven people in the house including the employees and that there are areas of the mansion they don't even use anymore, Elizabeth asks her some questions that Victoria answers with a healthy amount of sass, which Elizabeth appreciates and makes her accept hiring her. Later at dinner, Victoria meets the rest of the family. There is Elizabeth's brother Roger Collins, who is a loafer; Elizabeth's teen daughter Carolyn Stoddard, who is going through a rebellious phase; Roger's son David Collins, who isn't doing well since his mother died when he was five and thinks he can see her ghost; and Doctor Julia Hoffman, a psychiatrist hired to deal with David's issues but spends most of her time drunk. Victoria sympathizes with David and tells him she believes in ghosts too, which Elizabeth doesn't take well. Moments later, when Victoria is getting ready for bed, she sees Josette's ghost in the hallway. She tells her "he's coming" before going to the foyer and circling the chandelier a couple of times, and after repeating "he's coming", she falls the same way she did that day on the cliff and disappears. Meanwhile, in the forest, a construction crew building a McDonald's is doing some digging and finds Barnabas' coffin. They open it to see what is inside, and now that he is free, Barnabas proceeds to feed on every single worker, apologizing for his decades-old hunger. Afterward, he makes his way to the mansion on foot, observing and getting confused by all the technology and modern clothing on the way while covered in blood. When he makes it to the estate, he finds Willie in the garden and hypnotizes him with his vampire powers to give him the information he needs, he also asks him to clean him up before taking him inside. While trying to introduce himself to the children, Elizabeth interrupts him and asks him to talk in private, expressing her suspicions of his identity and saying all the magical myths surrounding the family are just fairy tales. Barnabas proves he's telling the truth by opening a secret room not even Elizabeth knew about, and promises to bring back the family's glory with all hidden treasure from that room. Elizabeth agrees to accept him back in the family but under one condition: he mustn't tell anyone that he's a vampire. The next day, during breakfast, she introduces him to the others as Barnabas the Third, a distant relative from England. The family begins talking business and they explain to Barnabas that the Collins' fishing empire is gone, now the entire area is ruled by Angel Bay Seafood. At that moment, Victoria enters the room, and Barnabas can't help flirting with her because she looks so much like Josette. Back in town, Angelique is still alive under the name Angie Bouchard, and she is now the powerful founder and CEO of Angel Bay Seafood. When her employees tell her about the accident in the forest, she goes there to see it with her own eyes and is shocked to find the open coffin. Not wasting any time, she quickly drives to Collinwood, where she exchanges some insults with Elizabeth before Barnabas takes her away to talk in private. As soon as he closes the door behind him, Angelique kisses him then tells him Collinsport is now her Angel Bay, thanks to the fishing business she's started on purpose to ruin the Collins. The townspeople respect her as their leader while they've forgotten all about him, so nobody is going to believe him anyway. After Angelique leaves, Barnabas expresses his worries to Elizabeth, who reminds him that no matter what happened to him in the past, he always fought on with such a determination that they had to put him away in a box. His family needs him now, so he should fight on in the present too. Inspired by her words, Barnabas begins putting all his energy into bringing glory back to the Collins. By selling some of the treasure from the hidden room, he hires dozens of people to renovate the mansion and rebuild their fishing company. With the help of an umbrella, sunglasses, and a hat, he manages to get out during the daytime without the sun burning him, although he has trouble finding a spot to sleep comfortably, so he makes the servants bring him his old coffin. When the company begins running smoothly, Barnabas hires fishermen by hypnotizing the captains working for Angelique and making them change sides. In his free time, he continues to learn about technology and spends time with Victoria. One evening, after Roger sees him get out of the secret room with treasure in his hands, Barnabas is found by Julia, who thinks he acts very weird and invites him to her office. She hypnotizes him and gets him to confess his secret, so she leaves him behind to go yell at Elizabeth for having kept it from them. Elizabeth convinces her not to go to the police when she points out that Julia should be fascinated by him, and she is, so she wants him to stay and learn more about him. Sometime later, Barnabas asks Carolyn for advice on how to court modern women. Carolyn tells him he needs to drop all the old-timey attitude and hang out with cool people, so Barnabas ends up in a hippie circle, sharing stories while smoking in the forest. After the girls teach him that women want love and not money, Barnabas kills them all in order to feed himself. The next day, Julia begins giving him blood transfusions to see if that can cure his vampirism. When Barnabas compliments her, Julia reminds him of the doctor-patient confidentiality concept and gets on her knees in front of him to pleasure him. While Victoria and Barnabas continue to spend time together and bond over talks about the supernatural, Angelique is furious that the Collins' company is being successful again. The board members don't understand what the big deal is because Angel Bay still reigns over 95% of the nets, but Angelique explains it's a matter of pride and carrying on what her grandmother started: a way to destroy the Collins family. She calls for Barnabas to have a meeting and offer him the opportunity to sell his company to hers, but he refuses. Angelique reminds him she only wants his love and threatens to kill Victoria if he doesn't give it to her. Barnabas gives in and makes love to her all over the office, destroying most of it as they go. After they're done, he realizes it was a mistake and tells her he can't be with her, so Angelique promises to destroy him. Barnabas continues to see Julia for blood transfusions while Victoria begins having dreams of the time she saw Josette's ghost as a child and her parents sent her to an asylum for it. When she wakes up, she finds Josette's ghost visiting her again, asking for her help before disappearing. In the morning while having breakfast, Barnabas announces he wants to throw a ball for the whole town to remind them which is the ruling family here. Carolyn explains to him that nowadays people throw happenings, not balls, and gives him some tips about modern parties. When the night of the ball comes, she discovers he hadn't been joking when he said he would get anything she mentions, and now Alice Cooper is playing live at their party. Since he isn't a fan of the music, Barnabas leaves to take a walk around the house and finds David taking care of the coatroom instead of the employee, because his dad has asked him to take over for a moment and not let anyone get inside. Barnabas sends him away and climbs the outside wall to peek through the window, finding Roger being intimate with the employee and stealing wallets from people's coats. Afterward, he meets with Veronica on a balcony, where she tells him she knows about his feelings for her. She feels like she can tell him anything and that she's known him forever, and confesses she's always felt something pulling her to Collinswood. When he tries to kiss her, she unconsciously pulls back because this is the first time someone she loves loves her back, and begins telling him her story. Victoria spent many years in the asylum, with only doctors and Josette's ghost as company, and she's been put through dozens of painful treatments to "fix" her. But she never gave up her will and one day she managed to escape through a window. While searching for somewhere to go, Josette pointed at the governess ad in the newspaper, and she knew what she had to do. She feels at home at Collinswood and she's developed feelings for Barnabas too, which she expresses by finally kissing him. This is seen by Angelique, who just arrived at the party, and now she's furious. The next day, Barnabas goes to see Julia to double the efforts on making him human so he can be with Victoria, only to find her transfusing his vampire blood into her body. She has never been interested in him becoming human, she only wants to make herself immortal. As punishment for breaking the family's trust, she bites her and kills her, not noticing her fangs growing, then he asks Willie to take him on the boat to the middle of the sea to drop her body there with a brick. Next, he finds Roger trying to access the secret room with the treasure, so he decides to give him a choice: he can start becoming a better dad to David, or he can take some money Barnabas will give him and leave to never be seen again. Roger chooses the money and leaves the estate, destroying David's heart. When the kid runs back to his room, he almost gets hit by the disco ball Wilie is disconnecting from the ceiling, so Barnabas uses his super-speed to save him and ends up under the sun, which begins lighting him on fire. Now the whole family knows his secret, and David and Victoria run away from him in disgust. Getting desperate, Barnabas goes to see Angelique, who refuses to remove the curse and gets him to admit he killed Julia. She then makes a proposal: they can rule the fishing empire together as partners and lovers, or she'll put him back in the box. Barnabas tells her to go to hell and tries to leave, but her employees are waiting on the other side of the door with a coffin that Angelique pushes him into. After closing it with chains, they put it in a van and drive to the cemetery, but only after Angelique uses a spell to make the Collins company building explode. The coffin is abandoned in a mausoleum, only to be found by David some moments later, who learned about Barnabas being in danger because the ghost of his mother told him. Back in town, people are watching how the police and the firemen are taking care of the fire. Angelique shows up and plays a recording of Barnabas admitting he killed Julia, using it to rally the town against the Collins. The angry mob, together with the cops and Angelique arrive at Collinswood right after Barnabas gets there too, and he's willing to confess if they don't do anything to his family but take Angelique with him as well. The sheriff tries to shoot Barnabas but obviously it does nothing to him, so he proceeds to bite Angelique and make her skin crack in order to show she's a monster too. As the sheriff sends all the people away, Barnabas begins fighting against Angelique with the help of Elizabeth's shotgun and Carolyn, who reveals to be a werewolf. Sadly, they prove to be no match for a witch's powers, especially when Angelique enchants the house to attack its own family. As she tortures them, she confesses she was the one that killed Barnabas' parents, David's mother, and also sent a werewolf to bite Carolyn in her crib, because she's always been the curse behind the family misery. David shows up then and sends his mother's ghost against Angelique, throwing her across the room and making her crash against the chandelier, which drops to the floor and kills her. As the family flees the house, which is now on fire, Barnabas gives Angelique a last goodbye, and the witch dies after ripping her heart out of her chest and giving it to him, but it only becomes dust. Barnabas can't find Victoria anywhere, and David's mom tells them she's at the cliff. As the family watches the house crumble, Barnabas races to stop Victoria from jumping, but she doesn't listen to him: she's just a human that lives in the light while Barnabas will live in the shadows forever, so they can't be together. This depressing thought makes Victoria jump, and like it happened decades ago, Barnabas jumps after her, but this time, he bites her to transform her into a vampire before she hits the ground. Now she's an immortal creature like him, they can be together forever, and the couple shares a kiss. In the bottom of the ocean, Julian's body opens her eyes, revealing she's become a vampire too.