 | |
| Julia Hoffman | |
| Aliases: | Doctor Julia Hoffman |
| Franchise: | Dark Shadows |
| Notability: | Supporting character |
| Type: | Scientist |
| Gender: | Female |
| Race: | Human |
| Location: | Collinsport, Maine |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Born: | 1922 [1] |
| Died: | 1970 |
| First: | House of Dark Shadows |
| Actor: | Grayson Hall Helena Bonham Carter |
Julia Hoffman is a fictional doctor and a major character in the 1970 American horror film House of Dark Shadows. She is based on the character of Julia Hoffman seen in the original 1960s daytime Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows. The character is played by actress Grayson Hall. A re-imagined version of the character appeared in the 2012 feature film remake of Dark Shadows and was played by actress Helena Bonham Carter.
House of Dark Shadows[]
Doctor Julia Hoffman was a general practitioner specializing in the field of hematology and alternative medicine. A graduate of Cornell, she took a sabbatical from her medical profession to spend time collating a comprehensive history of the prestigious Collins family of Collinsport, Maine. She moved into the great old, Collinwood estate and spent a great deal of time researching old diaries and letters.
In June of that year, Julia was forced to bring her medical expertise to the Collins family service. Her first in-house patient was Daphne Budd, the secretary to Collinwood matriarch, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. Daphne had been walking home from work one evening when a vampire attacked her, leaving two gaping wounds upon her throat. Daphne was brought back to Collinwood where Julia administered care to her injuries. She discovered that a strange, unidentifiable cell had entered Daphne's bloodstream, slowly destroying her platelets. She described Daphne's condition to the county sheriff, George Patterson.
A few nights later, Elizabeth's daughter, Carolyn Stoddard, became another victim of a vampire attack. Julia examined her blood and discovered the presence of the same mysterious, destructive cell that she had found in Daphne's blood. She presented her results to a family friend named Professor Timothy Eliot Stokes. Stokes suspected that the one responsible for attacking Daphne and Carolyn was a vampire. Julia had difficulty accepting Stokes' theory, but knew the man well enough to know that he wasn't given to whimsical bouts of speculation.
Within a short while, Julia discovered that Stokes was correct. A distant relative of the Collins family – Barnabas Collins visited the venerable estate and Julia noticed that Barnabas failed to cast a reflection in the mirror of her compact. The following evening, Julia went to Barnabas' abode at the Old House. She told him that she knew that he was a vampire, and further – that she could possibly cure him. Barnabas was naturally skeptical and regarded Julia as a threat to his existence. However, she convinced him that through careful analysis of Daphne and Carolyn's blood samples, she could isolate and destroy the viral vampire cell. Julia prepared a serum and administered a series of injections to Barnabas over the course of several evenings.
Miraculously it worked. Barnabas' blood-cravings began to subside and in a matter of days, he gained the ability to walk in the daylight for the first time in almost two hundred years. He still had a long way to go however, and Barnabas began to grow impatient. He wanted to rush the process along so that he could continue with his plans to court the Collins family governess, Maggie Evans. This revelation devastated Julia. She had fallen in love with Barnabas and hearing him pine after Maggie Evans was more than Julia could bear to hear. She deliberately sabotaged her serum and gave Barnabas his final injection. The altered serum had a traumatic effect on Barnabas' physiology. He began rapidly aging until he was little more than a gruesome, bald old man. He lunged at Julia screaming in a raspy voice, "You betrayed me!" Grabbing her by the throat, he strangled Julia until she fell over, dead. [2]
Dark Shadows[]
 | |
| Julia Hoffman | |
| Aliases: | Doctor Julia Hoffman |
| Film: | Dark Shadows |
| Notability: | Supporting character |
| Type: | Psychiatrist |
| Gender: | Female |
| Race: | Vampire |
| Location: | Collinwood, Collinsport, Maine |
| Associations: | Collins family |
| Status: | Undead |
| Died: | 1972 |
| First: | Dark Shadows |
| Actor: | Helena Bonham Carter |
Julia Hoffman is a woman who seems to have grown bitter of life, unhappy that she's aging and there's nothing she can do about it. She becomes such a severe alcoholic, her hangovers become legendary.
Either before or after she starts drinking, she is hired by Elizabeth Collins Stoddard to be a live-in psychiatrist at Collinwood for a month to help her nephew David recover from the death of his mother. Julia ends up staying for three years.
One day she joins the family for breakfast and is introduced to Barnabas Collins, a distant relative from England who is amazed at the idea of a female doctor. She can only stare, demanding to know if he's for real. Some time later, she catches him staring oddly at the red lava-lamp in Carolyn's room and decides that its time for her to practice her psychiatry on him. She places him under hypnosis for hours and discovers that Barnabas is a vampire, born in the eighteenth century.
Julia bursts into Elizabeth's office and demands to know why she didn't say anything about their new guest being a murdering vampire, for crying out loud. Elizabeth calms her down, encouraging her to keep the secret and simply take the opportunity to be scientifically fascinated with a real vampire.
Julia devises an experiment with Barnabas that may bring back his humanity through a series of blood transfusions, although she doesn't know why he would want to give up his immortality and eternal youth. He courteously compliments her beauty, stirring her into giving him a very physical reward. Julia surmises that if human blood transfusions will cure Barnabas of his vampirism, transfusing his vampiric blood to herself will make her an immortally youthful vampire. So, instead of transfusing his blood with her own, she takes his blood to use for herself. When Barnabas unexpectedly visits her lab to redouble their efforts, he finds her hooked up to an IV with his blood and is absolutely furious. He angrily attacks her and drains her of blood in less than five seconds. During the assault, she is shown to have vampiric incisors.
Barnabas and handyman Willie Loomis wrap Julia's body in a weighted canvas and dump her into the Atlantic waters off Collinsport, watching her vivid red hair sink into its murky depths.
Days later, at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, Julia is shown engulfed in a school of fish which dart away when she opens her eyes, flashing her vampiric teeth.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Julia Hoffman was created by director Dan Curtis and writers Sam Hall and Gordon Russell.
- The film depiction of Julia Hoffman differs from her counterpart on the Dark Shadows television series in that the House of Dark Shadows Julia Hoffman deliberately overdoses Barnabas when he does not reciprocate her romantic feelings.
- A nurse named Miss Shepherd worked under Julia's guidance at Collinwood.
- Julia spent a lot of her time at Collinwood researching the family history in a small library in the Tower room.
- Like the character that she plays, actress Grayson Hall was likewise was a student of Cornell University.
- Grayson Hall also played the role of Carlotta Drake in the 1971 film Night of Dark Shadows.
- Actress Grayson Hall was the wife of screenwriter Sam Hall.
- The Dark Shadows feature film portrayed Julia Hoffman as an aloof alcoholic, which is a radical departure from the portrayal of the character in the TV series.
- The Helena Bonham Carter version of Julia Hoffman was revealed to have been turned into a vampire in an end-credit scene in Dark Shadows. The TV version of Hoffman was never a supernatural creature.
- It should be noted that the Helena Bonham Carter version of Julia Hoffman did not become a vampire through traditional methods. She had been incrementally giving herself transfusions of Barnabas' blood. When Barnabas kills her, Julia can be seen bearing fangs.
See also[]
Dark Shadows
House of Dark Shadows
Night of Dark Shadows
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ Date approximated based upon relative age of actress Grayson Hall.
- ↑ House of Dark Shadows