Dark Shadows


Dark Shadows


Being a big Johnny Depp and Tim Burton fan, it was a conspicuous decision to watch Dark Shadows. I could possibly sit and stare at him for hours regardless of whether the film had a script or not.  Both of them team up yet again to create a mood of satire and some ghostly fun.

There isn’t too much darkness in dark shadows yet some ‘refined’ one liners, some even making you look for a dictionary! While there are elements of comedy about a vampire lost in time,Tim Burton is busy constructing an elaborate spoof of a gothic melodrama to really develop that thread. It felt like an old fashioned homage to melodramatic horror movies. Using his old colleagues he seems to be having a great deal of fun playing with some rather esoteric toys.

The movie wears its ridiculousness on its sleeve and even has an amusing mix of Science. Barnabus, the ghostly protagonist goes through a blood transfusion to cure him of his’ Vampirism’. There are too many obvious references to the ‘Twilight’ series with even a werewolf thrown in. Mr. Depp’s whiteness can definitely give our very own Edward a run for his money or to the departmental store for some chalk powder.

Every member of the Collins family is impeccably cast. Elizabeth (Michelle Pfeiffer), Roger (her brother, played by Johnny Lee Miller), her daughter Carolyn (Chloe Moretz), Roger’s ‘I see dead people’ son David (Gulliver Mcgrath), drunken house help Willie(Jackie Earle Haley), David’s new governess Victoria (Bella Heathcote) who is also the reincarnation of Barnabus’s betrothed Josette. Then there is the resident shrink Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) who was bought in to cure David’s hallucinations. Pfeiffer looks a little ripened but does her best as the family matriarch. Chloe makes a wonderful doped daughter swinging in to finally reveal herself as a werewolf. Helena Bonham Carter in limited screen time comes across as an alcoholic doctor who signs a ‘confidentiality bond’ with the vampire. Bella as Victoria looks like a victim from Titanic, looking plain and blank delivers whatever has been handed out to her. It just makes me wonder if all women named ‘Bella’ look and act the same way??. Eva Green does a decent job as the temptress cum witch whose bosoms ‘hasn’t aged at all’. The other characters don’t have too much of a screen time, neither do they provide much comedy.

Visually it was a delight when it comes to the production design, the garish costumes, makeup and effects. The movie makes an effort to blend various genres in one like comic-horror, gothic, family soap. melodrama, romance and copious amount of double meaning one liners. Even an “ugliest woman” Alice Cooper was thrown in to make the movie happening. We have had better from the duo but it would be unfair to absolutely twaddle this one. Watch it if you are a Depp fan or can sit through a comic horror without going too much into the nitty gritties of film criticism. 









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