Dark Shadows- Best. Movie. Ever.

For a Mother’s day present this past Sunday, my parents and I went to the movies to go see Dark Shadows; My parents were excited to see it since it had originally been a series, but I was just excited because the main character was played by none other than… Johnny Depp.

The horror-comedy movie is about a man named Barnabas Collins, who lived in 1760 with his family who established the city they live in called Collinsport. One of their servants, Angelique Bouchard, a witch, falls in love with him but he tells her that he doesn’t return her affections. She then murders his parents, but makes everyone believe it was an accident- Barnabas doesn’t believe her. He then falls in love with a girl named Josette, and when Angelique sees them together, she recites a spell which causes Josette to jump off of a cliff called Widow’s Peak. Barnabas then throws himself off the cliff too, in hopes of killing himself, but in order to keep her love alive, Angelique turns him into an immortal vampire and buries him alive in a coffin. About 200 years later in 1972, after a new governess for David arrives named Victoria Winters, construction workers are digging to build a McDonald’s (which I found hilarious) as they discover his coffin and he breaks free, returning to his family and convincing the owner of the manor that he is who he says he is. When Angelique, who has destroyed his family buisiness of canning seafood, finds out that he is alive, she seeks him out in order to ask him to love her again. When he still denies her, she seeks revenge by casting the same spell on his new love interest, Victoria the governess, affectionately known as ‘Vicky’.

Although the movie had a very creepy background theme running through it, it was still a pretty funny movie. And the stunts were amazing! The storyline was pretty easy to follow, and the characters were played very well. The main characters and who they were played by are below:

• Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins (the vampire)
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (the boss of the household)
• Helena Bonham Carter as Dr.Julia Hoffman (the psychiatrist brought in to help David, whose refuses to believe his mother is dead)
• Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard (the witch)
• Johnny Lee Miller as Roger Collins (the brother of Elizabeth and father of David)
• Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winters (David’s governess and Barnabas’ new love interest)
• Bella Heathcote as Josette du Pres (Barnabas’ old love interest who is only seen as a ghost after the first 5 minutes of the movie- keep in mind, Josette and Victoria are not the same person)
• Chloe Grace Moretz as Carolyn Stoddard (Elizabeth’s teenage daughter and secret werewolf)
• Gulliver McGrath as David Collins (Roger’s 10 year old son who doesn’t believe his mother is dead

One of my favorite scenes from the movie was after Elizabeth said that Barnabas could stay with them at the manor. He was trying to find a place to sleep, and tried lots of places, but the best part was when he tried to sleep in the linen cabinet and the 90 year old maid Mrs.Johnson opens the doors, takes out a towel, and closes them again.. She didn’t even see him. The whole theater erupted with laughter at that point.

Overall, Dark Shadows was probably the best movie I’ve ever seen- besides Titanic, of course. If any of you readers go see the movie, leave a comment saying what you thought and I’d be glad to read it!