Review of Dark Shadows (2012) by Rudy M — 05 Oct 2013

Dark Shadows is the tale of Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), son of a wealthy immigrant/settler family. His love interest is killed and he's cursed by a witch because he doesn't reciprocate her love. The curse entails being turned into a vampire and buried in a coffin for centuries until he is accidentally dug up in the early 1970's.

That's the start of the story, a modern tragic tongue-in-cheek fairytale if you will, about love and loss. The juxtaposition of the main protagonist with the actual time setting causes some funny scenes. As predictable and campy as some may be, they are always executed well and never hold up the progression. Let's not forget that this movie, from the start, never gives any indication that it wants to be taken seriously.

I'm just adding that in, since some other reviews you might find online seem to be based on the premise that it IS in fact a 'serious' movie. Sure, review a movie through those eyes and you'll end up with the same misconception as the 'Blade' series reviewed as non-fiction...

Back to the movie at hand. It has some great visuals and special effects. Most importantly, they feel natural, are not overtly presented just for their own sake and do not overshadow the story.

If you're a fan of the original TV series, you might say that the story of this movie doesn't fully do it justice. That it merely grabs a few strands of story archs and tries to make them work within a 90-minute feature film. That is certainly the case here.

In itself, though, the film works just fine. In a nod to its source material, it even features a cameo by Jonathan Frid who played Barnabas Collins in the 1960's series. Frid unfortunatly passed away a few weeks before the movie's 2012 release.

Pros: Genuinely funny dialogue and one-liners with a great delivery by Depp.

Cons: If you're a fan of the source material, this one is sparse.

Verdict: Go see!

P.s. I've read a LOT of reviews of this movie. It seems like not many people 'get' this one. This is not a 'vampire movie' like Blade, but, as I mentioned above, if you'd review that one expecting it to be serious to the point of non-fiction, you'd do it just as little justice as reviewing 'Dark Shadows' as a serious piece of fiction. It's campy, it's tongue-in-cheek. It was a lot of fun to watch.