A Dark Shadows Crash Course

He is charismatic, exciting, dangerous, dashing, and most importantly…weird. I find shades of Barnabas in characters like Buffy’s Angel, or Doctor Who/Torchwood’s Captain Jack, but both of those guys are way “hunkier” than Barnabas. Hell, even the Highlander mythos borrows from some of the panache of Barnabas. I watched this show as kid in reruns with my mom, and have very spotty memories of those viewings. At that time, I had no idea what was going on. When you re-watch the episodes now, you still probably won’t have a clear idea as to what is happening. But, the atmosphere and in-your-face cheese of the show is what makes it so classic. And again, the coolness of Frid.

There were two Dark Shadows movies prior to the new remake; House of Dark Shadows (1971), and Night of Dark Shadows (1971). Neither film is set directly in the continuity of the TV show, and only the former features Frid as Barnabas. Twenty years later, in 1991, a new version of Dark Shadows aired on primtime TV, but was canceled after only 12 episodes.

The new Tim Burton film includes several of the classic characters. Eva Green is playing Angelique Bouchard, who was a love interest/enemy of Barnabas in the classic series. Michelle Pfeiffer is playing Elizabeth Collins Stoddard; the head of the house and Bella Heathcote is playing Victoria Winters. Heathcote is also listed as playing “Josette” which makes sense, because in the old show Josette was used as Victoria’s medium in the séances, which resulted in those time travel shenanigans.