Carolyn Stoddard
Actress Barbara Blackburn as Carolyn Stoddard
From a somewhat coquettish, but modest girl in the 1991 version, they made some kind of debauchee. From the beginning of the film, she speaks sarcastically about her younger cousin:
“I hope she brings a whip and a chair. That’s about the only thing I haven’t tried with David.”
(as the housekeeper, Mrs. Johnson, pulls out a shoe box containing a dead rat): “I wouldn’t open it unless someone has a shotgun handy. David… welcome to Collinwood! Poor Victoria Winters!”
From the very first appearance of Victoria in Collinwood, the girl finds a common language with her and even gives her a ride on a horse (also named Carolyn). In her free time, she likes to seduce local males.
Like her counterpart in the original Dark Shadows and House of Dark Shadows, Carolyn from the 1991 TV series was attacked by Barnabas Collins and placed under his control.
So, the girl made several attempts on the life of Dr. Julia Hoffman, but the woman was saved either by circumstances, or by random people (Carolyn’s own brother, David Collins, who refused to carry poisoned tea to Julia), or by her own ingenuity (when Julia, like her prototype in 290-291 episodes of the original series, prudently put the mannequin in the bed).
It all ends with Barnabas Collins killing Carolyn right in the cemetery.
Julia Hoffman
Barbara Still as Dr. Julia Hoffman
For the first time here, she appears not as a redhead, but as a brunette.
This version of Dr. Hoffman was not a psychologist, but a doctor specializing in rare blood diseases who came to Collinwood to treat one of Barnabas Collins’ early victims and ended up staying to treat the vampire. Instead of the Windcliff sanatorium (analogous to a mental dispensary), Julia worked at New York University.
And she is no longer studying the blood samples of Barnabas Collins’ victims – Elizabeth Stoddard’s niece Daphne (who worked as an accountant), a local girl Gloria and her boyfriend, but her friend, Professor Michael Woodard (in the original his name was Dave. Here he acts as an analogue of Van -Helsinga, like Professor Stokes from “House of Dark Shadows” 1970):
Stefan Gierasch as Professor Michael Woodard from Dark Shadows Rebirth.
Michael was sure that in real life there are crazy people who consider themselves vampires and drink the blood of their victims.
“You can stop looking for the animal,” the doctor says to the sheriff, “I found traces of human saliva in the wound.”
It was Michael Woodard who summoned Julia to help him investigate the mysterious blood cell found in all of Barnabas’ victims. Julia Hoffman set up a laboratory in Collinwood and invented a vaccine that she tested on her patient, Elizabeth Stoddard’s niece, Daphne.
Daphne was soon killed by a vampire, Barnabas Collins, and attacked her boyfriend, Joe Haskell. When Julia first met Barnabas, unlike the character in the original series, she was not interested in his fate and did not pretend to be a historian in order to get to the bottom of the truth.
Like her counterpart from the original “Dark Shadows” and the 1970 film, Julia Hoffman from the 1991 series speculated about how her blood serum would affect a vampire, whether it was even possible to heal him. That is, she did not want to help Barnabas Collins out of the kindness of her heart, but only to experiment.
The idea with Julia’s experiments came not when Barnabas wanted to kill her, as was the case in episode 290 of the original series, and not when she herself was able to isolate the mysterious cell in the blood of Barnabas’s victims, but when she noticed that he was not reflected in the mirror in the living room.
Soon Dr. Woodard was killed by Barnabas, and Julia continued her research and experiments, saving Barnabas from the police. Willie Loomis reported to Julia that his master once almost killed Victoria Winters, and when Barnabas showed her Josette’s music box, she misinterpreted his words, thinking that he loved her and wanted to give her a gift.
Julia then saw the music box in Collinwood, in Victoria Winters’ room, where she overstepped the mark and began questioning the governess about her relationship with Barnabas. Curious about Barnabas’ intentions for Victoria, she asked Willie at the old house. Willy showed her a portrait of Josette DuPre and told her that Barnabas would soon marry Victoria once the treatment was completed.
Julia claimed that Barnabas could endanger everything by being part of a romantic relationship, arguing that it could return him to his former self forever. Barnabas returned home, and Willy and Julia, fearing his wrath, hid in the closet until Barnabas left the room. Willie went downstairs to distract Barnabas and give Julia a chance to sneak out of the house.
Later, in her lab, Julia wrote in her diary that she planned to postpone the experiment and keep Barnabas as he was until his relationship with Victoria ended. She would dilute the power of the serum, and he would remain half human, half vampire.
Barnabas demanded to know what Julia had done to him, and she confessed, stating that Victoria was not right for him and always would be. He demanded, even if it cost him the success of the experiment, that he be given the last injection and stop the treatment. Julia, heartbroken, gave Barnabas the high dose he insisted on, and from that moment on, their cooperation and friendship, if it can be called such , have vanished.
Barnabas’ new ally was Carolyn Stoddard, though not for long. After a costume party in Collinwood, the vampire vowed to settle the score with Julia and twice sent Carolyn to kill her.
Julia traveled to the Old House to speak to Barnabas about the attack, and he explained that her massive injection had caused him to age to the age of two hundred.
When she began to argue with him, Barnabas grabbed her and prepared to bite her, but then the ghost of Sarah Collins appeared and demanded that he stop. Shortly after this incident, Julia persuaded him to hold a séance, during which his teacher, Phyllis Wick, who was sick with diphtheria, fell from Barnabas’s past, whom she then looked after.
It all ended with the fact that Angelique Bouchard almost took possession of the body of Julia Hoffman, who witnessed how Victoria, returning from the past, was frightened by Barnabas Collins.
6 Maggie Evans
Actress Elie Pouget as Maggie Evans
As we know, in the original 1966-1970 series, Maggie was originally the daughter of a local artist and worked as a bartender at the Blue Whale Cafe as well as a waitress at the Collinsport Inn. And it was she, and not Victoria Winters, who was the reincarnation (as Barnabas Collins thought) of his beloved Josette DuPre, which led first to the kidnapping, keeping locked up in the basement and further insanity on this basis.
It all ended with Maggie being sent to a mental hospital, where she was examined by Julia Hoffman, and from which, with the help of Sarah Collins, Barnabas’s younger sister, she soon escaped.
And then, for some unknown reason, she became a governess in Collinwood, and soon these two characters – Maggie and Victoria Winters – conceptually merged in the series. And even then this was due to the fact that actress Alexandra Moltke left the project, and there was no one to replace her, and Victoria was deleted from history in the most stupid and terrible way – she committed suicide by jumping from a cliff, like Josette.
Later, in 1970, House of Dark Shadows shifted the bulk of the romantic “heavy lifting” onto the shoulders of actress Katherine Leigh Scott, again as “Maggie Evans”. In the future, Victoria and Maggie will literally become the same character in a Tim Burton film, but that’s another story altogether.
Here, in the 1991 version, Victoria Winters and Maggie Evans are different from each other. Only Victoria was assigned the function of Maggie from the original series and the 1970 film – to become the reincarnation of Josette, and Maggie Evans herself was turned into a psychic who is contacted to contact the spirits of Sarah Collins and Angelique Bouchard, however, the former function of the bartender at the Blue Whale cafe (aka – “Rainbow Bar”), still remains.
It all ends with Angelica moving into Maggie.
Laura Collins (mentioned)
Described as David’s mentally unstable mother, who, after a suicide attempt with a child, was put in a psychiatric hospital, where she died. But, since Dan Curtis was filming a horror film, Laura was turned into an analogue of Angelique Bouchard (into a witch), who took revenge on Roger through David for his betrayal with Maggie Evans and almost burned her husband alive.
In the original series, Laura Collins was an immortal supernatural being, the Phoenix, who returned every century to try to take her children (two Davids, Jamieson and Nora, ed.) and turn them into creatures like herself.
In addition, her relationship with Roger carried an incestuous connotation, since Laura was almost his own grandmother.
Willie Loomis
Actor Jim Fife as Willy Loomis
A nice guy, though a remorseful swindler in the 1991 version of “Dark Shadows”, was turned into a kind of mentally retarded redneck from the backwoods, who is also the nephew of the housekeeper, Mrs.
Actress Jullianna McCarthy as housekeeper Sarah Johnson (in this version, for some reason, she also has the surname Loomis)
Like his two counterparts from the original TV series and House of Dark Shadows, Willie is busy looking for the missing Collins family jewels. And it is not clear how he even found out about them.
“Willy: I understand everything! All this is in a secret room, in the family tomb!
Well, anyway, this guy Barnabas and his old man buried the family jewels to keep them safe and sound!”
And, oh damn! He again steps on the same rake and wants to rob his family! And they also made an inveterate drunkard out of Willy, who doesn’t really do anything, but rummages through papers, trying to guess one unknown riddle.
The entry reads: “The three graces revolve high above. The lion looks at the dove.” Sounds like utter nonsense, but for fans of the original “Dark Shadows” this phrase has an important meaning.
It is taken from the novelization of the 1970 film “House of Dark (Dark) Shadows”, which was originally slightly modified (in the film, the Madonna was mentioned instead of the graces).
Shot from the movie “House of Dark Shadows” where Willy Loomis tries to solve the riddle of the Collins Mausoleum and desecrates the grave of Barnabas
It is taken from the novelization of the 1970 film “House of Dark (Dark) Shadows”, which was slightly modified (there was mentioned the Madonna instead of the graces).
For comparison, I’ll show you the scenes where Willy Loomis sneaks into the mausoleum and finds Barnabas Collins there:
Mausoleum from the movie “House of Dark / Dark Shadows”, 1970
Willie discovers Barnabas’ coffin and thinks the family jewels are inside.
Shot from the movie “House of Dark Shadows”, where the hand of Barnabas strangles Willy
And even earlier, we see a similar scene from episode 210 of the original series, but there Willy quarrels with his crooked companion and, having learned from David and the housekeeper about the Collins family heirlooms, goes to rob a grave, and stumbles upon a living dead man who eventually enslaves him:
Frame from the original “Dark Shadows” 1966-1970
According to the plot of the 1991 series, it is Willie, and not Burke Devlin, who brings Victoria Winters to Collinwood.
“I hope you enjoy this palace of freaks, Miss Winters,” he tells her in the end.
This version of the series presents the character of Willy Loomis as an obvious redneck who does not respect anyone – neither the living nor the dead.
The only joy for him is to hang out in a cafe, drink and smoke. So, he started a fight in the institution in front of the newly arrived Victoria. This incident nearly gets him kicked out of town, and Willy becomes the first suspect in the murder of Daphne Collins, Elizabeth’s niece.
Barnabas kept Willie by his side for three days, using his vampire powers to make him his unwitting servant and learn as much as he could about this strange new world he found himself in, before eventually introducing himself to the Collins family under the guise of a cousin from England.
As with the original two Dark Shadows, Barnabas asks Elizabeth for permission to move into the Old House and tasks Willie with restoring the mansion. Willie, in turn, is presented as Barnabas’ apparent protector when Julia Hoffman tried to nurse him back to health.
As in the original series and House of Dark Shadows, Barnabas is not averse to hitting Willie with his cane, but unlike the two previous adaptations, in the 1991 series, the vampire apologized for the attack, to which the servant was quite dumbfounded.
And that’s where Willie’s role ends…