Have you ever seen Tim Burton’s 2012 ‘Dark Shadows’? It has to be one of my favorite Halloween movies! Dark Shadows is based off of the show (same name) that aired in the 60’s. The movie takes place in 1970’s Maine, includes vampires, witches, werewolves spiteful ex-lovers, powerful women, and has some wild plot twists. I have always loved Eva Green’s character, Angelique, in this movie. Although she is a vengeful, and crazy ex of the main character, Barnabas, her attention to detail in her revenge points is mighty impressive, she spends decades running a seafood monopoly in the small town of Collinsport, and looks absolutely fabulous while doing it all. I rarely side with the villain in a movie, but this woman knows what she wants and how to get it. I especially love her death in the movie, which I tried to recreate above. More recreations of scenes and the stories behind them are below!
Red Dress Scene:
This is definitely the first outfit I wanted to recreate from this movie when I was planning out Halloween content. It’s a very brief scene in the movie, but this red sequin dress is so iconic! It’s also what Angelique wears on the movie poster. Considering my budget with these recreations, I couldn’t afford to buy/rent a full on sequin dress so I got this one from Lulu’s. The exact dress I’m wearing is sold out in red, but here is the link in black/white and here is another dress from Lulu’s that would work amazingly for this shoot. I’m hoping to rewear it during the holidays! Here is a link to the scene (cut to 2:49).
Also, a fun fact about these photos is that I took them on my tripod in front of this fountain down the street from me. This was at the Columbia Lakefront and the morning I shot these, there were soooo many runners around. I felt super awkward being in a cocktail dress with a tripod, especially since there was actually an event going on at the lakefront as well! It was a “Paint Out” Exhibition so there were a bunch of artists with easels scattered around and I kind of looked like I belonged with them. A couple taking a walk even asked me what the event was, and based on my Google search 5 minutes before they asked, I was able to give them a pretty good answer.
“You should have loved me Barnabas…”
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t consider myself talented in the make-up department, but I’m very proud with how these turned out! In the movie, Angelique starts to crack like a porcelain doll whenever her heart hurts (pssh don’t we all), so I looked up Youtube tutorials on how to get that ‘cracked face’ look. I also used the sleeve of the shirt I wore in this post on only one arm to give the illusion my dress was torn up. I wore this dress to NYE last year and also used my tripod for these. It’s during this scene in the movie that Angelique has a bunch of iconic lines about how all Barnabas had to do was love her in order to prevent all of these bad things from happening. (I love a spiteful, angry woman making the man who hurt her pay). She uses her witch powers to fight the Collins family, act psycho, break down and still blames Barnabas for all of this chaos. It’s a great scene, and here’s the link to watch it.
“Take it”
Spoiler alert: Angelique gets thrown into a chandelier at the end of the movie. But unfortunately, I don’t have a chandelier so I had to improvise. I flipped the glass table my family has on our deck on it’s side and wrapped Christmas lights around it. (May have broken the table…sorry mom and dad). Forgive me if it doesn’t look super authentic, it’s all I got for me right now. I also went to PartyCity to get this fake heart. I love this scene because as the mansion is falling apart around everyone, so is Angelique. She starts cracking like glass and rips her own heart out to give it to Barnabas. As he refuses to take it, it shatters in her hand and she dies. #Relatable. I just love that a lot. Here’s a Youtube video of this scene!
And now, bloopers!
Hope you enjoyed this KimberKopy and are at least a little motivated to watch the movie if you haven’t seen it yet (theres still time before Halloween!). Be sure to go head to my Instagram stories for some behind the scene pics and videos! I’ve wanted to recreate this character for so long and am pretty proud of these pics. Let me know if you like them in the comments below!
Thanks for reading! xx