Hollywood Flashback: When ‘Dark Shadows’ Vampires Enchanted Lifelong Fans

Nearly 60 years before FX’s comedy What We Do in the Shadows earned its third Emmy nom for best comedy series, the ABC soap opera Dark Shadows brought supernatural storylines featuring vampires, ghosts, werewolves and witches to TV — albeit with less overtly comic qualities — when it premiered in June 1966. Filled with melodramatic plot twists, the campy soap set in the fictional Collinsport, Maine, quickly became a hit with teenagers (the late afternoon airtime was perfect for post-school TV watching) and maintained a cult following long after its cancellation in 1971 after 1,225 episodes.

The series is best known for the central character of Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), a vampire whose release from a near-200-year imprisonment 10 months into the first season gave Dark Shadows a major boost with viewers. Frid, who brought a compelling existentialism to Barnabas’ dilemma as a sympathetic monster who must feed on human blood, was among a handful of castmembers who took a hiatus from the show to film the feature film House of Dark Shadows, released in theaters to great success (and with uncensored gore) in 1970. A sequel would follow the next year (just months after the series’ cancellation), but Frid had by that point decided to step away from Barnabas; Night of Dark Shadows centers on another Dark Shadows antagonist, the witch Angelique (Lara Parker).

Fans have maintained their love for the franchise in the decades since thanks to syndication and home video releases. And diehards Tim Burton and Johnny Depp turned their passion into a Dark Shadows feature in 2012, their last film collaboration, which saw Depp fulfill his childhood dream of playing Barnabas. Taking a fish-out-of-water approach, the script by Seth Grahame-Smith sees Barnabas unchained in 1972 — only to comically struggle with the modern world, his lackadaisical ancestors (played by Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller and Chloë Grace Moretz) and his ultimate nemesis, Angelique (Eva Green). While it was a mixed bag tonally, THR praised the lead actor in particular: “Depp is right on the money in a studiously controlled, steadfastly humorous performance that takes its rightful place in his personal portrait gallery of one-off misfits.”

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

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