Review of Dark Shadows (2012) by Filipeneto — 05 Mar 2018

Barnabas Collins has a huge fortune and a great future but he turns out to be cursed by a witch, whose love he despised, becoming a vampire. Now, centuries after his disappearance, he will try to return to his ancestral home in order to protect his descendants. Directed by Tim Burton, it has screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith. The cast is headed by Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green.

This is the film adaptation of an old soap opera. First, I must say I never saw the original series, so I can not make comparisons. But one thing I noticed: as this film is a dark comedy, many people did not like it because they expected to watch a horror movie or a thriller. This happens especially when we know the story from a book or previous film. But that does not make it a bad movie. As I had no expectation, I watched it as a comedy and really liked it. The dark mood is rare because it is controversial, but this movie is full of good comic moments without breaking with political correctness.

The script works on a regular basis, it should have been more reviewed and worked. There are a handful of dubious elements, poorly explained situations and plot holes throughout the film. The provision of the actors was positive, but Johnny Depp's performance in the lead role, overshadows almost all colleagues. Actor experienced and proved in terms of versatility, he is able to do almost any role. Eva Green was also perfectly at the height of her role, giving an icy sensuality to the villain. The scenarios are excellent, particularly Collinwood, whose Gothic and sinister environment has lots of charm. I'm not a big fan of the seventies, but the epochal recreation seems to me dubious and untidy. Most of the scenes seem so much like the present that the audience quickly forgets the story takes place in the past. The cinematography is good, alternating darker and gray tones with more colorful scenes in order to emphasize sensations. The visual and sound effects are good. In turn, the soundtrack has coordination problems between the original track, made for the movie, and music pieces from the seventies that arise in the film and obfuscate soundtrack.