DARK SHADOWS starts out as a series drama (about over 200 years ago) in the typical Gothic Tim Burton matter before it tries to be both a gonzo comedy and a gothic drama.   Fans of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton might be satisfied, but fans of either TV series of DARK SHADOWS will be throwing their arms up in disdain.    If this movie was called anything other than DARK SHADOWS, it might have been a better film.  I enjoyed it, but this film isn’t the movie adaptation of DARK SHADOWS I signed up for.  Depp and Burton have struck movie gold with EWARD SCISSORHANDS, SLEEPY HOLLOW, and SWEENEY TODD.   However, DARK SHADOWS is one of their misfires.   Johnny Depp is more of a persona than a character in this film while Tim Burton focuses more on the visuals instead of making sure the script worked   so some of the blame falls on Seth Grahame-Smith (writer of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER).   Also Tim should have reined Johnny in a little.   Sometimes the gonzo persona of Johnny works and sometimes you the director has to know how to shape it.

 

The film starts out promising enough only to leave a dozen characters underdeveloped and focusing solely on the vampire adjusting to a new time (1972) story with Eva Green vamping it up as Angelique/ Angel (who cursed Barnabas Collins to be a vampire).    Sometimes the jokes fall flat (like the Carpenter woman in the box, Barnabas thinking Alice cooper is the ugliest girl he knows) while others strike gold (birthing hips, the very acrobatic PG-13 love scene).   Then you have characters who start out with stories that almost have enough to make them fully developed like Victoria Winters (please call her Vickie) and I do think the actress playing her has the right chops to play Victoria for Burton’s movie (and yet I wanted DARK SHADOWS to be something more serious and gothic horror than what Tim Burton did to the material).  Still by making DRAK SHADOWS a gothic comedy of sorts, it makes me want to watch the 1990s revival TV series and check out the original 1960s gothic soap opera.    I really wish a proper DARK SHADOWS movie was made for modern audiences, but this adaptation by Tim Burton may have doomed those chances to the grave.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Nine Focus Points (aka featurettes) which can be played with the movie if you want:

BECOMING BARNABAS (5:23)- a look at how Johnny Depp was dressed up to look like Barnabas including getting prosthetic ears and nose.

WELCOME TO COLILINSPORT! (6:49)- behind-the-scenes look at the incredible sets built on the back lot to create Collinsport circa 1970s

THE COLLINSES: EVERY FAMILY HAS ITS DEMONS (6:49)- a look at the various actors who were cast as the Collins family

RELIVING A DECADE (4:54)- the cast and crew talk about the various fashions of the 1970s used in the movie in addition to the production design.  Colleen Atwood talk about the clothes and the cast praise how on target Colleen is with the costume design.

ANGELIQUE: A WITCH SCORNED (2:58)- Johnny Depp and Eva Green talk about the stormy relationship between Barnabas and Angelique

ALICE COOPER ROCKS COLLINSPORT (2:25)- a featurette on Alice Cooper taking part in the movie and how a few scenes mirror the Alice Cooper song, The Ballad of Dwight Fry.

DARK SHADOWY SECRETS (3:53)- a look at the various props and special effects of the movie

A MELEE OF MONSTROUS PROPORTIONS (3:59)-  a behind-the-scenes look at the making of climatic fight scene in the movie which involved wire work

DARK SHADOWS: THE LEGEND BITES BACK (2:05)- Tim Burton discusses how he reimagined DARK SHADOWS for the big screen

 

Also on the blu-ray are five deleted scenes and I can see why four of them were cut (I wish the scene with the toy dinosaurs stayed in).

 

Also included in the combo pack is the DVD version of the movie with sound in Dolby Digital and a code to download or stream a digital Ultraviolet copy of the film.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: DARK SHADOWS is an amusing drama/ comedy, but I think it has set back the chances of a proper DARK SHADOWS adaptation by years or even decades.  The featurettes gives some good behind-the-scenes material in the making of the movie while the DVD was really put together with no effort to the menus (and window boxing the trailers for the widescreen format).

 

This review is (c)10-7-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com