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puppetmakerThere will be spoilers behind the cut and allowed in the comments.
To preface this a bit: I am a Dark Shadows Fan. Barnabas was my first vampire, as it were. I watched my way through the original series and saw the Ben Cross series. Dark Shadows was a soap opera, first and foremost, but it was a gothic soap opera which had warped a lot of little minds in its day. Many of those minds are now making the media that is warping the youth of today. I am pretty well versed in the whole Dark Shadows rather complicated universe although I get a little shaky on all the timelines towards the end. At least the characters got a happy ending kinda sorta even though it was a paralleled timeline.
Yesterday Peter, Caroline and I went to see Dark Shadows after reading the parental guides that we usually read to get an idea of why it was PG-13. Part of it had to do with the number of people smoking which, by count, would have gone R if there had been one more person lighting up. There is some swearing but nothing extreme. And some sexual content which was the sticking point, but after some more reading it was mostly innuendo and one scene with Barnabas and Angelique that is so absurd and you can’t really tell what is going on unless you know what is going on. There is also one quick scene with Julia Hoffman with an implication but again if you don’t know what is going on, nothing is going on.
Short version is that I liked it.
Longer Version
Both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have stated that they are old school Dark Shadows fans and it shows in this film. This is like the House of Dark Shadows through the lens of Tim Burton, which makes it stranger as it goes along but it worked for me.
Casting is solid throughout. Depp is channeling Frid. It is the Barnabas that I know and love. Much care is given to the costumes for Barnabas to reflect back to the TV series. I counted about three outfits that looked right out of the TV show or the House of Dark Shadows gilm or seen on the cover of the books (which I have a complete set of). The cane is a little different but they are going for the silver and vampires don’t mix trope. That it looks scrimshaw or an ivory carving makes sense for the period that the cane is from. The famed ring on his hand is there as well.
Michelle Pheiffer , who I think is a brilliant actress, surprised me in this one with how good her performance is. Jackie Earl Haley was great fun as Willie Loomis. And Willie didn’t annoy me as much as he did in the TV series. Almost didn’t recognize Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone) as Roger Collins. It seems to me that Roger was the character that Burton and the screenwriter didn’t really know what to do with, which is a shame since they had such a strong actor in the role. Chloe Grace Moretz does a dynamite job as Carolyn.
The story itself had to be written for those who haven’t a clue what Dark Shadows is and those who know it too well and, for the most part, it succeeds. The characters are introduced, the situation is wound up and we are taken through the narrative. But this is a Tim Burton movie so there are some weird touches that work yet also remind you that this is Tim Burton’s world that is being played in.
The commercials make it look like a campy laugh riot. Not in the least. There is humor and that macabre sense of the weird that is so Burton. But there is a story being told and it is not pretty at times. So yet again the commercials and the film are two different animals.
So overall good film both as the Burton film and Dan Curtis’ Dark Shadows. Would see again without regret.
We clapped when we saw Jonathan Frid (last filmed appearance), David Selby, Lara Parker, and Katherine Lee Scott. If you pay attention during the ball scene, you can see them in the background. It was so cool.
Caroline has been humming “No More Mister Nice Guy” since Alice Cooper sang it in the film. Using Alice Cooper (“Ugliest woman I’ve ever seen,” mutters a bewildered Barnabas) was a brilliant idea and works so very well. I did love all the posters in Carolyn’s room. There were maybe one or two that were not of the 1970s but it didn’t matter. It looked right. I liked the use of music that I knew in my youth on screen. And any vampire film that has “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues over the opening credits is doing something right.
The late reveal of Carolyn as a werewolf was probably Caroline’s favorite part of the whole film, but she likes werewolves. I have a feeling we are missing a scene in there somewhere but we have the one off of Angelique taking responsibility as she tells each of the Collins family how she has screwed them over.
Interesting that the part that choked Caroline up was not that Barnabas mowed through an entire construction crew, but that Roger abandons his son. As David watches his father hop into the taxi, Caroline was sobbing on Peter’s shirt. That and when Vicky’s parents sent her off to the mad house because she talked to the air.
I can accept the notion that Angelique has been around for so long because she is a porcelain doll that finally cracks. It goes for the metaphor side of a Burton film. I will say the last scene between her and Barnabas is just brilliant.
I kind of wished that they had gone with David’s mom being the Phoenix as they did in the TV show. They had all that fire and it could have been pretty cool.
The script had some problems but they mostly are short cuts to move the story along. That Josette threw her self off the cliff under Angelique’s influence was the fast way to get through the set up and then parallel it later with Vicky. Also combining Vicky and Maggie into one character made sense to me. In the original Maggie was the one who was the spitting image of Josette and Vicky is thrown back in time to see the events that led up to the curse.
The fight in the mansion was pure Burton lunacy and worked for me. For the most part Burton stuck to the gothic nuances that we know so well from the TV series. And Elizabeth was such a bad-ass in that scene which I loved.
So overall I am a satisfied Dark Shadows fan and a happy Tim Burton fan. Depp did a great job with Barnabas.
Unfortunately it is up against the Avengers which is slated to break a billion this weekend. But I hope that enough fans new and old give it a view. It is worth creeping around in the Dark Shadows again.
I am grateful to everyone who worked on all the versions of Dark Shadows I have seen.
To preface this a bit: I am a Dark Shadows Fan. Barnabas was my first vampire, as it were. I watched my way through the original series and saw the Ben Cross series. Dark Shadows was a soap opera, first and foremost, but it was a gothic soap opera which had warped a lot of little minds in its day. Many of those minds are now making the media that is warping the youth of today. I am pretty well versed in the whole Dark Shadows rather complicated universe although I get a little shaky on all the timelines towards the end. At least the characters got a happy ending kinda sorta even though it was a paralleled timeline.
Yesterday Peter, Caroline and I went to see Dark Shadows after reading the parental guides that we usually read to get an idea of why it was PG-13. Part of it had to do with the number of people smoking which, by count, would have gone R if there had been one more person lighting up. There is some swearing but nothing extreme. And some sexual content which was the sticking point, but after some more reading it was mostly innuendo and one scene with Barnabas and Angelique that is so absurd and you can’t really tell what is going on unless you know what is going on. There is also one quick scene with Julia Hoffman with an implication but again if you don’t know what is going on, nothing is going on.
Short version is that I liked it.
Longer Version
Both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have stated that they are old school Dark Shadows fans and it shows in this film. This is like the House of Dark Shadows through the lens of Tim Burton, which makes it stranger as it goes along but it worked for me.
Casting is solid throughout. Depp is channeling Frid. It is the Barnabas that I know and love. Much care is given to the costumes for Barnabas to reflect back to the TV series. I counted about three outfits that looked right out of the TV show or the House of Dark Shadows gilm or seen on the cover of the books (which I have a complete set of). The cane is a little different but they are going for the silver and vampires don’t mix trope. That it looks scrimshaw or an ivory carving makes sense for the period that the cane is from. The famed ring on his hand is there as well.
Michelle Pheiffer , who I think is a brilliant actress, surprised me in this one with how good her performance is. Jackie Earl Haley was great fun as Willie Loomis. And Willie didn’t annoy me as much as he did in the TV series. Almost didn’t recognize Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone) as Roger Collins. It seems to me that Roger was the character that Burton and the screenwriter didn’t really know what to do with, which is a shame since they had such a strong actor in the role. Chloe Grace Moretz does a dynamite job as Carolyn.
The story itself had to be written for those who haven’t a clue what Dark Shadows is and those who know it too well and, for the most part, it succeeds. The characters are introduced, the situation is wound up and we are taken through the narrative. But this is a Tim Burton movie so there are some weird touches that work yet also remind you that this is Tim Burton’s world that is being played in.
The commercials make it look like a campy laugh riot. Not in the least. There is humor and that macabre sense of the weird that is so Burton. But there is a story being told and it is not pretty at times. So yet again the commercials and the film are two different animals.
So overall good film both as the Burton film and Dan Curtis’ Dark Shadows. Would see again without regret.
We clapped when we saw Jonathan Frid (last filmed appearance), David Selby, Lara Parker, and Katherine Lee Scott. If you pay attention during the ball scene, you can see them in the background. It was so cool.
Caroline has been humming “No More Mister Nice Guy” since Alice Cooper sang it in the film. Using Alice Cooper (“Ugliest woman I’ve ever seen,” mutters a bewildered Barnabas) was a brilliant idea and works so very well. I did love all the posters in Carolyn’s room. There were maybe one or two that were not of the 1970s but it didn’t matter. It looked right. I liked the use of music that I knew in my youth on screen. And any vampire film that has “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues over the opening credits is doing something right.
The late reveal of Carolyn as a werewolf was probably Caroline’s favorite part of the whole film, but she likes werewolves. I have a feeling we are missing a scene in there somewhere but we have the one off of Angelique taking responsibility as she tells each of the Collins family how she has screwed them over.
Interesting that the part that choked Caroline up was not that Barnabas mowed through an entire construction crew, but that Roger abandons his son. As David watches his father hop into the taxi, Caroline was sobbing on Peter’s shirt. That and when Vicky’s parents sent her off to the mad house because she talked to the air.
I can accept the notion that Angelique has been around for so long because she is a porcelain doll that finally cracks. It goes for the metaphor side of a Burton film. I will say the last scene between her and Barnabas is just brilliant.
I kind of wished that they had gone with David’s mom being the Phoenix as they did in the TV show. They had all that fire and it could have been pretty cool.
The script had some problems but they mostly are short cuts to move the story along. That Josette threw her self off the cliff under Angelique’s influence was the fast way to get through the set up and then parallel it later with Vicky. Also combining Vicky and Maggie into one character made sense to me. In the original Maggie was the one who was the spitting image of Josette and Vicky is thrown back in time to see the events that led up to the curse.
The fight in the mansion was pure Burton lunacy and worked for me. For the most part Burton stuck to the gothic nuances that we know so well from the TV series. And Elizabeth was such a bad-ass in that scene which I loved.
So overall I am a satisfied Dark Shadows fan and a happy Tim Burton fan. Depp did a great job with Barnabas.
Unfortunately it is up against the Avengers which is slated to break a billion this weekend. But I hope that enough fans new and old give it a view. It is worth creeping around in the Dark Shadows again.
I am grateful to everyone who worked on all the versions of Dark Shadows I have seen.
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-12 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-12 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-12 02:49 pm (UTC)Michelle Pfeiffer is in this? Waaaaaah! I can't go see it. I just can't. *sniff*
no subject
Date: 2012-05-12 10:39 pm (UTC)Michelle Pfeiffer has some serious kick-ass moments. I really wish she would get more work.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-12 11:14 pm (UTC)I've been a big fan of Michelle Pfeiffer's since Ladyhawke.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-12 04:10 pm (UTC)Also, Caroline likes werewolves? She's got good taste!
no subject
Date: 2012-05-12 10:40 pm (UTC)