In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet-or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy...until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.
- Written by Warner Bros. Pictures
In 1760, the Collins family moves from Liverpool to the Maine to expand the family empire and dedicate to fishing business. One year later, they are successful and the city of Collinsport is raised in the place. Then, for fifteen years, Joshua and Naomi Collins build their Collinswood mansion. Their servant Angelique Bouchard has an unrequited love for their son Barnabas that actually loves Josette DuPres. But Angelique is a powerful witch that curses Barnabas and his family, killing his parents, Josette and turning him into a vampire. Then she brings the locals that lock him in a coffin and bury him for the eternity. In 1972, the young Victoria Winters comes to the decadent Collinswood to be the tutor of the young David Collins, who lost his mother two years ago. She finds a dysfunctional family composed by the devoted matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard ahead of the family business that is near bankruptcy; her rebel daughter Carolyn Stoddard; her brother and David's father Roger Collins; the psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman that takes car of David; and the servants Willie Loomis and Mrs. Johnson. When eleven workers release and awake Barnabas, he drinks their blood and returns to Collinswood. He meets Elizabeth and she tells that the family has been cursed, and Barnabas shows a hidden room with a treasure in side and he promises to protect them and assume the business. When he sees Victoria, he rekindles his love for her. But the witch Angie is still alive and is prominent in the town and she has not forgotten Barnabas.