Dark Shadows Review (2012)

★★★☆☆

Dark Shadows is Tim Burton’s latest film and it’s based on the legendary 70s cult Gothic soap opera but the film is played for laughs. I’ve not been fond of Tim Burton’s post-Big Fish with his version of Alice In Wonderland being the lowest point.

The story starts in 1760 and it’s about Barnabas Collins (played by Johnny Depp), a wealthy playboy who breaks the heart of the witch Angelique Bouchard (played by Eva Green) when he goes out with Josette du Pres. Angelique makes Josette commit suicide by jumping off a mountain ledge and she curses Barnabas to become a vampire and is buried alive in a chained coffin.

Fast forward to 1972 and Barnabas is accidently freed from his coffin by some construction workers. Barnabas goes back to his family mansion and finds it occupied by his dysfunctional descendants and hired hands Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), Roger Collins (Johnny Lee Miller), Carolyn Stoddard (Chloë Grace Moretz), David Collins (Gulliver McGrath), Mrs. Johnson (Ray Shirley) and Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter). Angelique is still alive after pretending to be many generations of her family. Barnabas decides to try to restore his family’s name and rebuild their fishing business. Angelique decides to plot her revenge and win him back.

The film is clearly a vanity project for both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (who is a producer) and clearly love the show. It kinda plays like a Goth 70s sex comedy and it’s really not for kids. It has this strange tug of war between very board humour and much darker stuff like Barnabas murdering hippies. The film is much more in tone with Tim Burton’s earlier films Beetlejuice and Mars Attacks! (I actually saw it in the cinema when it came out) which both I’ve always really liked.

It’s all very quirky which can be annoying and it is at times. It’s nice to see a film that makes the kids are messed and weird and that’s a good thing, a flashback involves a kid being sent to a mental hospital and she is the main love interest.

Johnny Depp’s performance can be annoying at times. It’s not as bad as the post-1st Pirates films or his horrible Willy Wonka performance. It’s the best thing he has done with Tim Burton since Sleepy Hollow. All of the supporting cast are pretty damn good especially Chloë Grace Moretz, Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green. It also includes a pretty amusing cameo from Alice Cooper in a party scene.

It’s designed to the inch of it’s life like all of Tim Burton’s stuff and it’s obviously nice to look at. It’s got all the gothic buildings and twisted Tim Burton trees that we have came to use to with Tim Burton’s work.

The script is all over the place and it’s not as funny as it should and does have this strange mixture of sex comedy humour and much darker themes. It’s over the top but that’s from the source material. It’s terribly flawed but compared to Tim Burton’s last 4 films it’s Citizen Kane and it’s a perfectly fine 2 hours at the cinema.

I don’t think Dark Shadows will be successful at all and the reviews have been pretty negative and box office wise it seems like it will a bit of a bomb and that’s a good thing. I hope Tim Burton will then rethink his career and make something smaller and as good as Ed Wood.