I hadn't thought of it before, that the POV is that of Barnabas for the first time. Cool!
Myself, I've always wanted to see Barnabas react to things like hearing a phone ring for the very first time--not only reacting to the weirdness of this
sound but also not letting anyone know that this is a totally new experience for him. Lots of potential humor in that, when you think on it--and humor is usually needed when tensions are really, really high. Think about it--we have someone who eats people wandering around this innocent family, deceiving them, getting them to trust him, maybe encouraging a young lady to fall in love with him. Plenty of potential tension there!
Losing Sarah would be sad, but cluttering up the story with all kinds of delightful subplots that work so well for a t.v. series is not a good way to make a movie.
The more I think on it, I suspect the modern Collins clan probably live in a nice mansion, clearly of a later time than the Revolutionary War-era manor house where Barnabas grew up. That way, one hardly even needs to explain it.
And let me add this fun proviso--if this movie is a really huge hit, doesn't it make things that much more likely that somebody will use it as a template for a brand new t.v. series? If that happens, wouldn't it be the
best possible outcome?