Review of Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows is a 2012 American horror comedy film based on the 1966-1971 Gothic horror soap opera of the same name. The film is directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a 200-year-old vampire, Eva Green as Angelique  Bouchard a vengeful witch who plots a vendetta against Barnabas and his family, and Michelle Pfeiffer as his cousin Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. When I first heard about this film, and that Tim Burton was directing it, I had a great feeling that finally the reputation of the vampire on the big screen had the chance to redeem itself (the Twilight films have more than sufficiently destroyed that).


I've never seen the TV series, so I went into the cinema with an open mind, and I can clearly conclude that Tim Burton has done a good job with this, it carries everything that makes Tim Burton films appealing. The film is by no means perfect, there's a lot that could have been done better. I'm going to start with the cast, as with everything Depp does, he was great as Barnabas Collins, you can tell that he studied the like of Christopher Lee in order to create his incarnation of the vampire. Which is obviously a good thing because that means he was mimicking the golden age of the vampire, back when they were played by some of the greatest actors of the time. Depp combines  his formula for comedy with the charming yet ferociousness nature of the vampire. When you also add in the fact that his character is from the 1700s, his mannerisms appear out of place in the 1970s, it is the perfect setting for a comedy, but it is important not to allow that to distract from the fact that a vampire is a deadly creature, that needs to feed, needs to kill. As for the rest of the cast, Eva Green is brilliant as the witch, she's sinister, sexy and cunning. Her and Depp would a good on screen pair. Helena Bonham Cater has a smaller role than she normally does in Burton's films, but she still makes herself known. Apart from Chloe Grace Moretz and Bella Heathcote, the rest of the cast is extremely average. Alice Cooper has a cool cameo in the film, it's quite funny how he looks exactly the same today as he did in the 70s (the guy has always looked old!). 


The film itself is good, flows pretty well (my only complaint is that it seems to rush through the prologue) and the music resembles that of 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' (minus the musical film aspect of it), which works well in this. On the comedy side of things, it's funny, but it's not nearly as funny as it could be, and the laughs aren't long lasting. You find yourself laughing at Depp's character more than anything. The whole film as that particular look and feel that all Burton films have, and I strongly believe that this is one of his better pieces of work. The film is consistent throughout, everything about it is decent up until the end, where things start to become a bit ridiculous and border line stupid.


So overall, it's a good film, definitely worth seeing if you are a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp fan, but it's one of those ones that could have been done better. It isn't a big return to glory for vampires that i wanted, but it is definitely a good start; it's like the first step in a long journey to making vampires cool again. I'd give this film 7/10.