Dark Shadows (2012)

I am a huge Johnny Depp fan and have seen almost every movie he has ever been with so when I heard that Dark Shadow was coming out, directed by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp has the lead, you know I wanted to go. Not to mention I was talking on of my friends for Mother’s Day and she remembered watching the TV show back when she was a kid. 

Let me just say that I was disappointed. Do you know those movies that show all the good bits in the previews and the movie although not bad, you feel could have ended about a half hour sooner. That is what happened here.  Don’t get me wrong, Johnny Depp played the character Barnabas amazingly and he did a brilliant job as always, but something just left me and the people I went with feeling like something was missing. 

The movie starts in the mids 1700’s with a young Barnabas Collins and his family sailing to the new world from Liverpool, England to start a new life and trade. His parents open a fishing industry and the town of Collinsport, Maine grows into a bustling town. Barnabas grows up and hits manhood, with that comes the passions and drives of young men…sex. Barnabas takes up an affair with a young maid in the house Angelique (played by Eva Green). Angelique falls in love with Barnabas, thinking that he would marry her, but Barnabas sees her as just a release for his needs and instead he falls deeply in love with an upstanding young woman of his class, Josette. Angelique is heartbroken and falls into a vengeful rage, unfortunately for Barnabas, Angelique doesn’t just seek vengeous like the normal scorned woman…Angelique is a witch. She kills his parents, put Josette in a trance and has her walk off a cliff plunging to her death and curses Barnabas to walk the world forever, feeling the pain of the loss of his beloved Josette as a vampire.

But this is not enough for the enraged Angelique. She turns the town against Barnabas and they burry him alive in a casket in the woods…..

Time passes…the city grows

1972 the city begins to expand into the woods, needing more land for a growing population. Late at night the construction crew digs up a 200 year old casket. Being the normal idiots that so much of the population is, instead of calling the officials, they open the casket. In a furry Barnabas, starving rushes out and feeds on the entire construction crew. 

Refreshed and happy to be out of his prison, Barnabas heads back to his home, Collinswood Manor only to find that his family has fallen from grace. No longer are they the powerful fishing industry that was the beating heart of the town instead they barley keeping afloat. Only 4 members of  family exist anymore; Matriarch Collins-Stoddard (played by Michelle Pfeiffer), mother of adolesant crazy Carolyn Stoddar (played by Chloé Moretz) and Roger Collins (played by Jonny Lee Miller, alcoholic asshole father to David Collins (played by Gulliver McGrath). Together they make up the dysfunctional remains of the Collins family.

David has a number of issues, unstable after his mother died he is unsocial and a loner. In an attempt to help the young boy survive Matriarch has hired a live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (played by Bonham Carter) and a nanny and teacher, Victoria Winters (played by Bella Heathcote).

Barnabas arrives and through showing hidden treasures buried within the house, he manages to convince Matriarch that the rumors of the family having vampires in it are real and that he is Barnabas from the 1700’s. Matriarch agrees to let Barnabas stay as long as he doesn’t interfere with anything or harm her children.  Barnabas agrees. 

But soon Barnabas realizes that things are not quite right. His family business is gone, taken over by Angel Fish, run by the witch, Angelique, who has continued her revenge on the Collins family for 200 years by destroying every last member.  Barnabas is also shocked when he meets Victoria and realizes that she is the spitting image of his long lost beloved….Josette.  Barnabas swears that he will restore the family business, bring down Angel Fish and get his beloved Josette/Victoria back. It is easy to do, but let’s just say that Angelique’s anger has not subsided over 200 years and she is still out to destroy Barnabas, because if she can’t have him no one can. 

The movie had its moments that were funny and I have seen worse movies, but from Tim Burton I expect more. This is not something you should waste your money on and go see in the theater. Just wait until it comes out on TV.