Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Spoilers

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Note from the admins:

The forum does not advocate the posting/reading/discussion of spoilers. But we understand that many people like them, so here's a topic to post/read/discuss them. However, the forum's staff does not support in any way, shape or form anything that's posted in this topic, nor do we claim its accuracy, and we kindly ask that any sorts of references to anything that gets posted to this topic be completely limited to this topic alone so that people who choose to avoid spoilers can remain completely spoiler free.

Thanks!  

[neiljohnson]

Possible Movie Details: SPOILERS

I found this information on a soap-opera website which features American soaps.  I'm not sure if it is reliable, however, it is interesting.  I've copied the entire post.   I tried to hide the spoilers, but I couldn't get it to work with cut-and-paste -- sorry.  If you don't want to read spoilers, please do not read any further.  It is faily lengthy.  Here is is:



Spoilers below! Don't read, if you don't want to know!

Got this several days ago. Haven't had time to share until now. It appears to have been floating around from person to person. Take it worth a grain of salt, I suppose. Still interesting.

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Byron, thought you might enjoy this information. Saw it printed on Gadabout sometime last week. Enjoy!


[spoiler]Angelique, not Barnabas, is the major villain of the film.

Barnabas becomes a sympathetic character almost immediately after being released in 1972.

Angelique is killed near the end of the film.

During the course of the movie, Barnabas is briefly cured of vampirism, but is re-cursed by the dying Angelique.

The 1972 Collins family is accepting of strange Cousin Barnabas, partly because they have lost their fortune, and Barnabas appears to be wealthy.

Victoria Winters is a student of the occult, and has chosen the employ of the Collins family intentionally.

In a 1972 scene, Barnabas has a violent reaction to the decrepit condition of Collinwood Manor.

Barnabas does not kill any of his victims in the script, and no new vampires are created (other than Barnabas, himself).

Angelique kills an important character.

Angelique can fly.

When Angelique initially curses Barnabas in 1772, she does not summon a bat, but a vampire named Cornelius.

Barnabas attempts to escape Cornelius on horseback, while Cornelius pursues him on-foot. Cornelius leaps onto the horse from behind, and attacks Barnabas. The two fall off the horse, which continues to speed away without them. On the ground, the vampire violently and repeatedly bites Barnabas, rendering him life-less. This, in my opinion, is the only truly frightening scene in the script.

David has a brief phone conversation with his mother, but her face is not shown.

In an humorous segment, Barnabas is taught to drive an auto.

Barnabas despises Roger and plans to kill him. Someone talks him out of it.

Barnabas’s costume includes a cape, ring, cane, and oddly, a wide-brimmed hat.

A major character falls from Widow’s Hill in 1972.

Barnabas is chased through the forest by a group of towns-people wielding wooden-stakes and hammers. He finds a strange hiding-place.

An on-going gag, throughout the script, includes a group of hippies who find themselves squatting in several very unfortunate locations.

If one pays attention, some very familiar art-work is seen in the halls of Collinwood Manor.

Angelique and Julia hate one-another for reasons other than Barnabas.

Three actors from the daytime-serial version of Dark Shadows play cameo roles. One is quite a surprise.

A 1970s rock-star also has a cameo, as does a well-known vampire author.

Barnabas can transform into mist and a bat, but has difficulty mastering these powers.

In a 1972 scene, Angelique informs Barnabas that there are other vampires in the world, and that Cornelius is still (for lack of a better word) “alive.”[/spoiler]

 Admin warning:  Violating Forum Guidelines

[Gothick]

These  are very cool!  Sounds juicy!

G.

[madscntst]

Hi neiljohnson, thanks for the spoilers.  I've elected to read them, knowing there are always pros and cons of doing so, but I appreciate that the members here are given the choice by having a separate thread and a spoiler button!  

Realizing that these may be made up, and we should always take this info with a grain of salt unless we hear it from a credible source, these sound like reasonable plot points.  A few of them are already substantiated, such as

[spoiler]Alice Cooper's cameo and the "hippy" extras[/spoiler]

so we'll see if the rest is true.  I wouldn't be bothered by any of the changes from the original series (or film) if they do turn out to be true.

A couple of general thoughts,
[spoiler]The aspect of the hippies being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as well as Barnabas learning how to drive a car, and maybe not having complete mastery of his powers, sound like a lot of fun and could certainly account for the descriptions of the script being "funny".  They also seem right up Johnny's alley and I could see him having a ball with it!  However, I also like that certain aspects, such as Angelique dying and other major character(s) dying, sound very dark.  I hope they will not be afraid to show the dark nature of the story![/spoiler]

Cathy

[jimbo]

Thank you for the spoilers. I can't imagine that they are all or will be as stated. The spoiler referring to Victoria Winters is really out there and not consistent with DC's dream and Ms. Scott's purported reading of the script; what Barnabas doesn't do is implausible; [spoiler]no mention of a 200 year old lover character.[/spoiler] There are some spoilers that are very possible. I just can see TB and company allowing unauthoried individual(s) getting hold of plot specifics. I will be disappointed if this is the case.

[Gerard]

Some of the spoilers (if they are true), do show ways of having a sequel, if the film is successful.

Gerard

[Brandon Collins]

Thanks for posting the spoilers! They are very intriguing and any or all of them could be very plausible parts of the script. The only thing I wonder is who or what the source of the information is. If we knew that, it would definitely lend to or take away from the credibility of the information.

The only thing I don't like is:

[spoiler]That Barnabas doesn't kill his victims. The original series walked the fine line of making Barnabas very dangerous, yet at the same time still likable. If Barnabas doesn't kill his victims then he must have a serious army of people who are loyal to him and can do his bidding. And I'm wondering exactly how many of his victims are members of the Collins family? Since Carolyn and David are both minors here, does he bite Elizabeth? I'm sure he'll probably bite Julia since he'll need her full trust and confidence once they become close, but that doesn't really leave many options.

Also, the spoiler about Victoria Winters is full of great possibilities to move the story to interesting new places. But why is Angelique constantly after Barnabas? Is it just because she's so completely evil that she's holding that horrible of a grudge against Barnabas for breaking her heart all those years ago? The thing that was great about the Barnabas/Angelique relationship in earlier incarnations was the fact that she was so pissed at him for breaking her heart and he only made it worse by continually falling for other women throughout his 200 years, which would instantly bring Angelique back. So if he's not falling for Vicki, is he falling for anyone at all?

Finally, I'm excited to see who exactly dies in the film, besides Angelique (if her death is true). And, we all know that given the history of Angelique's character, her dying doesn't really mean anything at all. I have a hard time thinking of which of the main cast could die at Widows Hill. All of them are so integral to the tone and feeling of the series, I wouldn't want to lose any of them.[/spoiler]

[neiljohnson]

I'm not sure it is still necessary to hide spoiler content, since this topic is all about spoilers, and members will be coming here specifically to read them.  But, I'll continue to hide, until that is decided.  It will become more and more awkward, however -- as time goes by.  As the months pass, more and more spoilers will undoubtedly escape and be discussed here.  Hiding them all will be a lot of work.  But still . . .

I have concern about one of the claims: [spoiler]"Barnabas becomes a sympathetic character almost immediately after being released in 1972."   I think that is a mistake.  If Barnabas becomes sypathetic too early, then he's not really a threat -- hardly a vampire at all.  I with TPTB would have allowed Barnabas to be the villian of the first film, and then introduced Angelique as the villian of a second film.[/spoiler]

And a question about another: [spoiler]"If one pays attention, some very familiar art-work is seen in the halls of Collinwood Manor."  I'm wondering what that means.  Is this important in some way?  Some deeper meaning?  Out of context, that statement seems meaningless.[/spoiler]

And what about [spoiler]Cornelius?  Could that be a cameo for Christopher Lee or perhaps Mr. Frid?  At their advanced ages, I doubt either would have the physical stamina to carry-off that scene.[/spoiler]

[madscntst]

I think that Brandon brings up a very good point and I do agree with it.  So maybe I don't actually mean to say that none of the spoilers would bother me    *Most* of them wouldn't, but I also don't want Barn to be a watered-down vampire- I want it to be dark and menacing (I'm one for hoping the film will be R rated, even though I admit there are advantages, mostly monetary, of going for a PG-13 rating). 

As for the artwork, the first thing I thought of was that maybe there would be portraits of Josette, Quentin, Barnabas, Angelique, etc that we'd know from the series.  Not necessarily the original props (though it'd be great if they still existed!!)  but just close enough that fans would recognize them.  And of course, it wouldn't matter if they didn't look like the film's cast members, because they could just be identified as other family ancestors.

[michael c]

it sounds as if burton is falling into the same trap lara parker did with her novel "the salem branch" also set in 1972...

a heavy reliance on the presence of "hippies". the "summer of love" was in 1967. woodstock 1969. by 1972 it was already becoming an outdated concept and the country was moving in other directions.

i'm assuming one of burton's main reasons for setting the piece here was stylistic concerns. it's strange he's getting this particular detail wrong.

[Midnite]

I'm not sure it is still necessary to hide spoiler content, since this topic is all about spoilers, and members will be coming here specifically to read them.

It is still necessary:  For the readers who don't want to accidentally read them (since there's more than one way to display unread posts, such as "View most recent posts" or "Show unread posts" etc.), and for your hosts, since only one moderator has elected to read these spoilers yet all the other (non-spoiler) content of this topic must still be moderated.  Thanks.  

[KMR]

a heavy reliance on the presence of "hippies". the "summer of love" was in 1967. woodstock 1969. by 1972 it was already becoming an outdated concept and the country was moving in other directions.

Having been a teenager in a small town in Michigan in 1972, I could see "hippies" still being a relevant concept in a small town in Maine in 1972.

[Midnite]

BTW, there's a spoiler button above the white response window-- look for Sp in the top row.  When you're ready to add spoilery content, you need only click it.  In most browsers, your cursor will automatically appear between the 2 tags (Explorer requires you to do it yourself), then just type your spoiler (or paste it using Edit/Paste or Ctrl+V).  Hope that helped.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

The way I see it is that the only way to condense 1,125 episodes into a 2 hour movie, as was the goal of the screenplay, and taking into account these potential plot points, is to [spoiler]move the Widows Hill death of Barnabas's love to the present.  If we are to presume that Barnabas loves Victoria, she would logically have to die on Widows Hill.  Then you could build sequels from that point, using the old Josette angle, albeit with a new character.

The only other major character I can see dying on Widows Hill would be Liz, as she had suicidal tendencies.    However Julia would be another possibility.  But, I still have my money on Victoria.[/spoiler]

[KMR]

Where is it said that the goal was to condense the entire run of DS into a single movie? That is the most bizarre idea I've ever heard of.