TV, film ‘Dark Shadows’ casts unite on big screen
We were too scared to sit by ourselves. On hot summer afternoons in the late 1960s, my sister Paula and I would descend into our cool, dark, Kansas basement and turn on the TV. We’d climb into our mom’s recliner together, ready to hide our eyes from the terror that was daytime-tv’s gothic soap opera, “Dark Shadows.”
We were captivated by the haunting antics of vampire Barnabas Collins and his tormenter, voodoo witch Angelique Bouchard. But when the episode ended, we’d bolt upstairs into the safety of sunlight, where the undead couldn’t catch us.
I relate my childhoodfan story to Lara Parker, who played Angelique in the original ABC series, which terrified viewers from 1966 to 1971. She’s not impressed.
“I’ve heard it all,” she said with a laugh during a phone interview from her Topanga Canyon home in unincorporated Los Angeles County, Calif.
Two other childhood fans are a bit more impressive. Director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp, who used to run home from school to watch the show, are breathing new life into Barnabas and Angelique in the “Dark Shadows” movie.
Fans of the original series have criticized Burton’s reinterpretation, which features a campy attitude and Depp in whiteface makeup. Parker says fans should see the compliment in Burton’s reimagining.
“The ‘Dark Shadows’ fans are extremely vocal and passionately loyal to the original show,” Parker said. “But they are a drop in the bucket to Johnny Depp’s fans. They think they are the deciding factor, and I think that’s lovely. ...
“They remind me of the Tea Party. They’re so right. You can’t argue with them. .... They say they won’t go see this movie. Well, they’ll go see it.”
Parker says Burton’s movie is an homage to the original “Dark Shadows.” “His sets are like paintings,” she said. “He goes far beyond what we could do in our little studio.”
After all, Parker said, the TV series reinterpreted classic horror characters, including Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Parker and co-stars Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins), David Selby (Quinton Collins) and Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans) make a cameo appearance in the new film. Reunited at Pinewood Studios in England, Parker and her co-stars went into makeup and wardrobe, where the women were dressed in “matronly” black gowns. “We were a little disappointed; we thought we’d get something a bit snazzier,” Parker, 74, said. “I think they expected us to be old and gray and decrepit, but we didn’t complain.”
When the four got to the set, no one recognized the actors from America. When Burton introduced them to the 100 or so actors, extras and crew assembled for a party scene at the Collinses’ ancestral home of Collinwood, everyone burst into applause.
Frid, who died at age 87 on April 13 (yes, TV’S most famous vampire died on Friday the 13th), was troubled and disoriented. “He was furious he’d been talked into coming,” Parker recalled. Frid had even tried going back to his home in Hamilton, Ontario, before the others intervened.
But Frid somehow rose to the occasion, Parker said.
“Jonathan and Johnny Depp were introduced. It was a sweet moment,” she said. “I’m not sure Jonathan knew who Johnny Depp was — he didn’t watch TV or keep up with popular culture — but Johnny Depp was extremely warm. I think Jonathan finally realized that this young actor in white makeup was going to be the new Barnabas.”
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