Helmed by the well-known gothic fantasy and horror director Tim Burton, the horror comedy “Dark Shadows” is no stranger to unique visual style, well-designed production sets, and film locations. So we’re here to take you on a virtual ride to every spot.
Before all that, let’s take a quick dive into the film.
So, Burton’s “Dark Shadows” is the 2012 big-screen adaptation of the popular gothic soap opera by ABC, which premiered in 1966 and aired until 1971.
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It follows the story of Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) and his aristocratic family, who set sail from Liverpool to Collinsport, Maine, where they built their grand estate. However, his life gets turned upside down when he rejects the advances of his secretly-a-witch servant Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green).
She murders his parents and curses Barnabas. Centuries later, Barnabas gets accidentally freed and wakes up to a whole new world.
Where was Dark Shadows filmed?
The story of Barnabas Collins takes place in the fictional town of Collinsport in the real-life Pine Tree State. However, the 2012 film wasn’t actually filmed in Maine. The set locations were mostly in England, with scenes in Scotland and Canada.
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Rick Heinrich, who was most famous for his works “The Big Lebowski” and “Sleepy Hollow,” was the film’s production designer. Bruno Delbonnel was the cinematographer, while Colleen Atwood of “Alice in Wonderland” was the costume designer.
Collinwood Manor
Barnabas Collins’ manor was built from scratch in the historic village of Bourne near Farnham, Surrey.
However, some shots were taken from a 30-foot-high miniature of the mansion. (A contender was the Ecclesgreig Castle near Montrose, Scotland, which inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula.)
The mansion from the original cult series used the exterior of the Carey Mansion, also known as the Seaview Terrace, located in Newport, Rhode Island.
Then for the two early 1970s Dark Shadow films titled “House of Dark Shadows” (197o) and “Night of Dark Shadows” (1971), they used the Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, New York.
Another mansion featured in “House of Dark Shadows” was the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion in Norwalk, Connecticut. It was where Barnabas lived.
Interior Scenes
A big chunk of the movie was filmed in Pinewood Studios at Pinewood Road in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, South East England.
It’s a major movie studio featuring more than 20 stages and acres of backlot that hosted a string of blockbuster productions such as the James Bond movie franchise, “The Dark Knight,” and “Doctor Strange.”
The Clearing & The Forest
The movie also filmed scenes at the clearing just southeast of Farnham (south of Dene Lane and off Tilford Road), which may be familiar to many as the set for “Gladiator” and “Robin Hood.” The forest is also very popular as the backdrop of Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” and Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World.”
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According to Cinemaholic, some of the forested scenes for the movie were shot in the 250-hectare Black Park Country Park in Wexham, just 2 miles away from Pinewood Studios.
Other Locations
Besides the manor and the studio, the production team also filmed in several other locations.
In England, they shot sequences at the Beckenham Place Mansion and the nearby Beckenham Place Park (the asylum where Dr. Julia Hoffman, played by Helena Bonham-Carter, escapes), Great Mattiscombe Sands near Stand Point for the beach (a peninsula near Kingsbridge in South Hams, Devon) with towering cliffs done via CGI, and various sites in Cornwall, England.
For the backdrop of some locations, the team used the Isle of Mull, a sparsely populated Island in the Hebrides archipelago. They also did a few scenes at the Trafalgar Castle School, a girls’ boarding school in the Durham Region of Whitby, Ontario, in Canada.
That’s a wrap for the filming locations for “Dark Shadows.” If you ever travel to the UK, these destinations are definitely must-sees!