‘Dark Shadows’ enjoyable but conflicted

Dark Shad­ows is very loosely based on the TV series from the late ’60s and stars Johnny Depp as the aris­to­cratic son of an indus­tri­ous fam­ily turned cursed vam­pire, Barn­abas Collins. Barn­abas and the entire Collins blood­line must share a curse placed on them by the spite­ful witch, Angelique Bouchard (Green), who des­per­ately yearns for the love of Barn­abas. His affec­tions are reserved for Josette DuPres (Heath­cote) who also falls vic­tim to the dark magic of Angelique. Angelique decrees that if she can not pos­sess the love of Barn­abas that no one shall have it. She then gains the aid of an angry mob of towns­folk who turn on Barn­abas and imprison him for nearly 200 years until his return in 1972 when fate intervenes.

While try­ing to accli­mate to the new era, Barn­abas returns to his fam­ily home to find his descen­dants resid­ing in his pala­tial man­sion. They have all but given up hope as the fam­ily busi­ness has sub­sided. This leads to an unfor­tu­nate change of pace in the cape town that his par­ents founded in the mid 1700s. Barn­abas holds the value of fam­ily above all else. He vows to bring the busi­ness back to the fore­front and thus per­pet­u­ate an income that will bring them out of this tough time. Dri­ven by the love of his fam­ily and (right­ful) hatred for his com­peti­tor, there is soon a shift of power. This sets off his com­peti­tor to the point of tur­bu­lent vengeance.

By now we are all famil­iar with the some­what overused, Tim Bur­ton for­mula of “quirky love story + Johnny Depp = a movie.” I am no stranger to admir­ing the films of either Bur­ton or Depp. Bur­ton is one of my favorite direc­tors and Depp is won­der­ful at his whacky char­ac­ter por­tray­als in such a way that only he can do. My DVD col­lec­tion con­sists of many titles from both of these indi­vid­u­als (Seven of them include both). The for­mula still works, but just barely. Burton’s direct­ing has always been revered as going against the grain, striv­ing to be dif­fer­ent and often edgy. He has cre­ated such a rut from his own styling that it almost seems like his guild of actors are more like a cabaret group that are just per­form­ing sketches. It has become very com­mon­place and not very “against the grain” at all any­more. There is a lack of shock and awe in “Dark Shad­ows,” but I can not think of any­thing I would change if I were pre­sented with a com­ment box. Would it be any bet­ter if Ash­ton Kutcher donned a cloak and tried his hand at being the lead­ing man in a Tim Bur­ton movie? No, because you would always say to your­self, “Johnny Depp should have played him.” It is just what we have grown to love about them.

The act­ing in “Dark Shad­ows” was very diverse, but often con­flict­ing. It was hard to decide an over­all theme. You are pre­sented with equal parts hor­ror, com­edy, tragedy, romance and even late-night adult themes. This works to an extent, but some­times the viewer needs a lit­tle con­ti­nu­ity. Eliz­a­beth (Pfeif­fer) was very dry and often despon­dent. Vic­to­ria (Heath­cote) was very grounded despite the fact that she has trav­eled through many life­times to be with her one true love. Barn­abas (Depp) well … you know. My favorite char­ac­ter was the Collin’s house­keeper, Willie (Haley). He was the inad­ver­tent star to me. Willie is loyal to the Collin fam­ily and con­stantly drunk, so you can imag­ine how well-timed and witty his antics are. He def­i­nitely had some of the best lines in the movie.

In ret­ro­spect, “Dark Shad­ows” was an inter­est­ing movie. We have all seen it in one form or another, but who doesn’t enjoy watch­ing Johnny Depp play an awk­ward char­ac­ter bet­ter than any­one else can? While I do think it is worth check­ing out if you are a fan of Tim Burton’s pre­cur­sory titles, you might be bet­ter off pay­ing mati­nee prices. It was as good as it could have been, but I rec­om­mend that you see the Avengers first if you are pre­sented with the choice.

Posted by Scott Hall on May 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.