Dark Shadows [M]

“Blood is thicker than water”. Barnabas Collins was always taught that family and the dignity of a bloodline is the most important thing in the world. And for years the Collins family established a strong and profitable seafood business with their views of family being strongly upheld. But everything changed when a witch, who is madly in love with Barnabas who does not return her affections, kills his parents and his beloved, places a curse upon his family, and turns him into a vampire so that he can spend eternity with nothing but his grief. Now, 2 centuries after being buried alive, Barnabas has come home and he is determined to fight back and bring the Collins family to its former glory. 

It’s Tim Burton, it’s Johnny Depp, and it’s filled with great songs from the 70s; it would have been so completely blasphemous of me to not go and see this film. Burton delivers again with this darkly funny movie based on a television show; I ultimately really liked it but there were one or two things that just didn’t make it as good as it could have been. Having said that though, it will still make it into the collection with it comes onto DVD. 

“Blood is thicker than water”. Barnabas Collins was always taught that family and the dignity of a bloodline is the most important thing in the world. And for years the Collins family established a strong and profitable seafood business with their views of family being strongly upheld. But everything changed when a witch, who is madly in love with Barnabas who does not return her affections, kills his parents and his beloved, places a curse upon his family, and turns him into a vampire so that he can spend eternity with nothing but his grief. Now, 2 centuries after being buried alive, Barnabas has come home and he is determined to fight back and bring the Collins family to its former glory. 

At the end of the day, the one thing that upset me a little with this movie was the fact that everything was sort of haphazardly thrown at you without any follow-up information or anything. Whether this was some of satirical Burton-esque humour that I did not understand is anyone’s guess, but I just felt that so much more could have been explained and, by being so explained, would have a stronger effect and really bring the film to its potential. The romance between Barnabas and Victoria, for one thing, really could have been touched on a bit more as it is one of the central themes for the protagonist’s grief, having lost his love who looks like Victoria. It didn’t need to be exaggerated or anything, but a bit more attention paid to it would not have gone astray and would make it just a bit more emotional and drawing. 

Having got the unpleasantness out of the way, the 70s setting for an 18^th century vampire to come back to is just great and makes for truly funny and wonderful comic relief and interpretation. Not to mention the fantastic songs that we get to hear on the soundtrack: there is nothing like busting out a bit of The Moody Blues, T-Rex, Barry White, Black Sabbath, and Alice Cooper all in the span of 2 hours. 

Starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bella Heathcote, Jackie Earle Haley, Johnny Lee Miller, Gulliver McGrath, Christopher Lee, and Alice Cooper, Dark Shadows was a very good movie, but not one of Tim Burton’s finest. Filled with action, blood, sex, murder, drama, romance, and plenty of dark comedy, not to mention some pretty trippy and cosmic special effects, it’s a film that I enjoyed very much and, yeah, it has a place in my collection.