The Original Series
Up until the 1795 flashback, we knew very little about how Barnabas fell under the vampire's shadow. Small clues dropped from episode to episode were painting a portrait that was significantly different from what we actually saw dramatized on January 12, 1968. But then again, much of the way Barnabas described the events of his past didn't jibe with the "actual" history of the Collins family. Upon meeting Victoria Winters in the as-of-yet refurbished Old House, Barnabas regales her with a disquieting bit of Collins lore: "On these stairs, a father and son hurled words at each other... words that would lead to the death of the son."
Original viewers in 1966 learned that the ghost of Josette Collins, a protective force for good watching over the family, particularly young David and Victoria Winters, was married to Jeremiah Collins, then described as the original builder of Collinwood. According to Shadows on the Wall, the original story bible written by Art Wallace, "Josette Collins found she was an alien in a hostile land. Shunned by Jeremiah's family, hated by the community, her life was tormented by increasing loneliness. Two years after the birth of her son, Jeremiah's French bride fell ...or jumped ... to her death from the edge of Widow's Hill. Her body was found the next morning on the rocks below." Barnabas' arrival changed the story: middle-aged Jeremiah brought Josette to Collinwood, where Barnabas himself became a rival for her affections. The passage of years saw his devotion to her grow stronger; it is hinted that Barnabas chose to become a vampire in order to pursue Josette across the centuries.
All of these hints are washed away when Victoria Winters crosses the barriers of time and journeys "back to the year 1795. There each of the Collins ancestors resembles a present day member of the Collins family, but the names and relationships have changed, and Victoria Winters finds herself a stranger in a sea of familiar faces."
One of the faces Vicki does not recognize is that of Angelique Bouchard, Josette's maid. As faithful viewers of Dark Shadows are now aware, Angelique is a witch, albeit a witch, initially, with powers that she wields clumsily at times. But it is her passion and all-consuming obsession with Barnabas and acquiring his love that focuses these powers. And then finally, during episode #405, these same loyal viewers were finally privy to the true events behind Barnabas' induction into the world of the undead.
Having learned of Angelique's various magical indiscretions, including destroying his engagement to Josette and holding his beloved sister's health hostage, Barnabas finally pulls out a pistol and shoots his brand new bride.
"Oh Barnabas, what have you done?" she cries, clutching the bloody bullet hole above her heart. She sinks to the floor as Barnabas rushes to her side and frantically pulls the pins from Sarah's doll.
Angelique glares up at him, her eyes burning with hatred. "You didn't do the job well enough, Barnabas," she hisses. "I'm not dead yet. And while I can still breathe I will have my revenge!"
"I set a curse on you, Barnabas Collins! You wanted your Josette so much; well, you shall have her! But not as you would have chosen. You will never rest, Barnabas, and you will never be able to love anyone -- for whoever loves you will die. That is my curse, and you will live with it through all eternity!"
As Angelique collapses, apparently dead, a bat crashes through the drawing room window of the Old House and, as Barnabas recoils in horror, it attaches itself to his throat as he collapses, screaming.
It will take Barnabas several episodes to finally die as a repentant Angelique does her best to remove her malady, to no avail. Barnabas does indeed die, proclaiming his love to Josette, and rises from his coffin in the secret room in the Collins mausoleum in episode #411.
Barnabas Collins, a Novel by Marilyn Ross.
Soon after Dark Shadows premiered in 1966, Paperback Library, a publisher specializing in quickly produced Gothic paperbacks, debuted its own series of tomes based on the series. The first few were inspired by Art Wallace's story bible for the series and focused on the adventures of Victoria Winters. It took nearly a year for Paperback Library to shift its narrative intentions onto the shoulders of the now-literary Barnabas Collins.
Barnabas appears in the series for the first time in November of 1968, nearly a year and a half after his television counterpart knocked on the front door of Collinwood on April 18, 1967. Aptly named Barnabas Collins, the novel purports to tell the "never-before-told story of the foggy night in 1899 when Barnabas Collins first arrived at Collinwood. You'll chill to the full horror of the real truth about Barnabas - a secret so terrible that it could not be revealed until now ..." This was, of course, news to those loyal viewers of the television serial, who knew the "real truth" about Barnabas and who had seen for themselves the way the events of 1795 transpired.
Nevertheless, Dan "Marilyn" Ross offered his own succinct version of the way that Barnabas became a vampire during a conversation with Margaret Collins, in the reality of the novelizations and a departure from established continuity on the show, the mistress of Collinwood at the end of the 19th century:
"What made you this way?" Margaret exclaimed in revulsion. "The kind of thing you are?"
Barnabas looked infinitely sad. "A woman's love and a woman's hatred. Often they become one and the same emotion. You have perhaps heard of Angelique?"
Margaret frowned. "She lived here long ago, didn't she?"
"She came here from the Indies. She was a witch. But I did not know that. Long before she arrived at Collinwood her soul had been poisoned by the voodoo rites of the island where she lived. I was in love with Josette. You'll recall her portrait in the living room of the new house."
"The girl who my Greta resembles?"
"Yes. That is what makes Greta special for me. And the child Judith as well, who also bears a youthful resemblance to my lost Josette. Seeing them here is almost like finding Josette again."
"What happened to Josette?"
"She killed herself. Threw herself over the cliff at Widow's Hill."
"Why?"
Barnabas bowed his head. "Because she found out about me. What I had become."
"What had Angelique to do with it?"
The tall, handsome man lifted his eyes to meet hers again. "Angelique was in love with me. She tried to turn me against Josette. And she managed to convince me that Jeremiah Collins and Josette were in love, that Josette was betraying me behind my back. I challenged Jeremiah to a duel. Neither of us was severely wounded, but I learned that Angelique had been filling me with lies."
"What then?"
"I faced her with her villainy. And I was so enraged I made an attempt to kill her. I fired a pistol at her at short range. She thought she had been fatally shot and cursed me and anyone who loved me." He paused, a haggard expression shadowing his gaunt features. "A bat came flying at me from out of the darkness and bit me in the throat. She invoked it with her witchery. And I became one of the living dead from that moment on."
An interesting version of the established television story with strange deviations that raise interesting questions: why does Ross spare Jeremiah Collins? Why are neither he nor Barnabas "severely wounded" when, in the series, Jeremiah is really Barnabas' first victim, despite Angelique's involvement?
The Gold Key Dark Shadows Comic Book Series
The maiden issue of Gold Key's 1968 Dark Shadows title dove squarely into the story, offering a succinct summary of events that had taken place in the series, including a one-panel version of how Barnabas fell under Angelique's curse.
Syndicated Daily Newspaper Comic Strip
From March 14, 1971, until March 11, 1972, Kenneth Bruce Bald illustrated a daily three panel comic strip (with a larger color offering on Sundays). Bald was limited to utilizing Barnabas, Carolyn, Elizabeth, and Angelique, the only canon characters from the series to appear in the strip, but their likenesses closely resembled their television counterparts. The first strip offered Barnabas' origin in a similar manner to that used by Gold Key, including Angelique's thrust out, spell-casting witch's hand:
1991 Revival
1991 saw NBC reviving Dark Shadows for a once a week, prime-time soap in the manner of the wildly successful David Lynch series Twin Peaks, which had debuted the year before. Though it only ran thirteen episodes, the 1991 Revival managed to dramatize Barnabas and Vicki's arrivals at Collinwood, re-imagined to coincide in this version, as well as performing the entire 1795 (in this version, 1790) flashback.
Though the narrative was tightly compressed, the Revival gave viewers an entirely new take on Angelique, arguably less sympathetic than Lara Parker's portrayal, as well as the way she engineered her curse:
Having discovered the fetishes Angelique used to cast the love spell over Jeremiah and Josette, Barnabas threatens to kill Angelique unless she breaks the spell. "If I do it," she coos, "Josette will die."
"I will take these to the authorities," Barnabas snarls, "and you will be hanged as the witch you are." Insane with fury, Angelique snatches a knife, screeches, "If I cannot have you, no one will!" and attempts to stab Barnabas. They grapple, and Angelique falls on the knife.
Dying, she manages to whisper, "I curse you, Barnabas. For all eternity. I curse you ..."
After Barnabas and Ben Loomis bury Angelique in the woods, lightning strikes her grave. Later, Barnabas meets a seductive Josette in a secluded part of Collinwood. They begin to kiss passionately -- too passionately, as Josette soon reveals her vampire fangs and sinks them into Barnabas' throat.
She sucks his blood greedily before turning into a bat ...
... and flying away, leaving Barnabas drained to the point of death.
The ghost of Angelique appears above him, cackling wildly. "Your hell shall take whatever shape I choose," she promises him.
Moments later, Barnabas dies in Josette's arms, swearing that he will love her forever.
Angelique's Descent
In her 1998 novel Angelique's Descent, Lara Parker, Angelique herself, tells the story of Angelique's origins, which lead up to the curse, rendered here from Angelique's point of view:
He fumbled with something in the box in his secretary and wheeled on her. She saw him raise the gun and aim it, and she looked into the eye of the muzzle. She saw a flash of light and heard a barking retort. She reeled with the blow. The bullet ruptured her shoulder, which spurted blood, and she felt her body turn to water as she slid slowly to the floor. In a vague stupor she saw Barnabas, his blackened form, his wide stance, warp and fade, as her vision misted and she tasted blood. His towering shape reached for the doll, and his shaking fingers removed the pins one by one. Then he stood and backed away from her unsteadily.
She knew she was dying. Blood oozed between her fingers, and the wound was like a tentacled creature radiating pain through her body enveloped in a great swelling cloud of hatred. She searched deep within her for some curse, some irrevocable pronouncement of doom, before the end came. The Cata fluttered, arrhythmic, fading, but the huge Maman pumped stronger than ever, and she knew in her violent stupor that the Dark One had come to witness her prayer for revenge. The floor beneath her dissolved, and she felt as though she were floating upward into billowing clouds of smoke. Pain swept through her, and a voluminous ball of fire exploded in her deepest core, funneling out her mouth.
Barnabas wavered at the blast of her breath as though it were a wind of flame, and she could no longer see his face. He was floating on dark undulating waves, and she could hear the water rushing, rushing, as she strained to speak.
"You didn't do the job well enough, Barnabas!" she gasped. "I am not dead yet! And while I can still breathe, I will have my revenge! I set a curse on you, Barnabas Collins! You wanted your Josette so much -- well, you shall have her. But not in the way you have chosen. You will never rest. And you will never be able to love anyone. For whoever loves you will die. That is my curse! And you will live with it through all eternity!"
Somewhere in the dim recesses of the room, the casement slowly opened, and out of the darkness the bat fluttered, chattering, jerking, looping above Barnabas's head, reeling in a gyre, diving for his neck. He saw the creature and lifted his hands in a feeble gesture, his expression one of confusion, then horror, as the beady eyes glittered crimson, and the sharp teeth gleamed like tiny daggers. He waved it away, but it came on, ducking from his blows, striking again and again, until it landed, flapping against his neck, clinging there, and his eyes widened in terror as he felt the teeth ripping his flesh. He screamed a gasping, wrenching howl that was the final cry of doom.
2012: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's Dark Shadows
The 2012 reimagining of Dark Shadows, once again as a feature film, opened with narration by Barnabas himself, telling the tale of his affliction:
Angelique, the Collins family servant, spurned by Barnabas in favor of the beauteous Josette DuPres ...
... casts a spell ...
... summoning Josette to Widow's Hill.
Though Barnabas tries to stop her, Josette plummets to her death. He doesn't think: he calls out her name, and leaps from the cliff after her.
Barnabas wakes moments later, completely unharmed ... but his face is pale now, and black tears stain his face. 
He lifts his eyes to the top of the cliff, where Angelique herself stands, hands outstretched, a merciless expression on her face ...
As Barnabas cries out in horror, his hands contort, the bones cracking, fingers lengthening, giant claws bursting forth ...
His transformation complete, Barnabas reveals shocking, wolfen fangs ...
... having become a vampire.
Dynamite Comic Company's Dark Shadows Series
The 2012 Dark Shadows film inspired Dynamite Comics to start a new series of Dark Shadows comics, picking up in 1971, where the original daytime serial left off. In April of 2012, they offered a new, five-issue title, Dark Shadows: Year One, written by Mark Andreyko and illustrated by Guiu Vilanova.
Diverting a bit from established television canon, but showcasing likenesses adhering closely to the actors upon which the characters in the comic are based, Year One follows the 1795 story: the day before his wedding, Barnabas enjoys a night of passion with Angelique, unaware that she is Josette's maid. Angelique uses her powers to drive Jeremiah Collins into a fit of insanity, leading to the duel with Barnabas in which Jeremiah is killed. Sarah falls under Angelique's influence as she does in the series, and Barnabas agrees to marry the witch if she can cure Sarah. Barnabas swears that their marriage will be a hollow, loveless one; after a clue from the Countess DuPres, he discovers Angelique in the midst of casting a spell and shoots her several times.
Assuming Angelique is dead, and despite a warning from time traveler Victoria Winters, Barnabas rides off on his horse to swear his love to Josette. Unfortunately, his wife isn't as dead as she seemed ...
By far, the most dramatic interpretation of the curse yet.
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