Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Seth Grahame-Smith and John August, based on the series created by Dan Curtis
Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green
Release Date: May 11, 2012
Tim Burton’s DARK SHADOWS is an adaptation of the wildly popular daytime soap opera that originally aired on ABC from July of 1966 to April 1971. Created by Dan Curtis, who would later go on to produce classic TV movies THE NIGHT STALKER and TRILOGY OF TERROR, SHADOWS began life as a run-of-the-mill soap differentiated only by it’s Gothic setting, but picked up in popularity with the introduction of supernatural elements such as ghosts. With the introduction of the vampiric family patriarch Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid in the series) the show’s popularity exploded among the youth of the day, most of whom were arriving home from school just as the show aired at 4 pm every day. Throughout the course of the show’s run Barnabas and the rest of the Collins family got caught up in melodramatic storylines involving zombies, werewolves, elder gods, witchcraft and even time travel.
Amassing 1,225 episodes during it’s five year run, the show’s cult appeal endured over the decades in syndication, including an extended stint on the Sci-Fi Channel from the mid-90’s to the early 00’s, which was when my sister and I caught up with it. The main hook of the show for me was the richly Gothic atmosphere which began with opening credits which consisted of the show’s eerie theremin-fueled theme music set over dreary soft-focus shots of Collinwood Manor and a rocky cliff-face towering above the roiling sea. The show had the same languorous pacing as any other soap opera, long stretches of episodes where the characters did very little other than stand around on cheap-looking sets arguing in circles about who betrayed who, and who turned who into what. The acting was often terrible, and it was not uncommon for a boom mike to make an unwelcome entrance. But you never knew when Barnabas would bare his fangs, or a werewolf might suddenly come crashing through somebody’s window. My sister and I would have a ball laughing ourselves silly at the preposterous special effects on display, yet despite all of this I remember spending an entire summer faithfully tuning in every morning to keep up with the current story arc. Those summer mornings spent obsessing over this silly slice of melodramatic cheese are some of my fondest memories.
The film begins with a prologue detailing the history of the Collins family as they leave Liverpool for American in 1760, establishing the town of Collinsport and constructing the opulent Collinwood Manor. When young Barnabas Collins (Depp) rejects the romantic advances of Angelique (Green), the servant with whom he has been having an affair, he quickly discovers that she is a witch, who uses her craft to curse his entire family, killing his parents and hypnotizing his beloved Josette (Bella Heathcote) into leaping to her death from a seaside cliff. Grief-stricken, Barnabas attempts to off himself as well, only to discover that Angelique has transformed him into a vampire, sealing him inside of a locked coffin and burying him alive, ensuring that his suffering shall be eternal.
Jump ahead two hundred years, to 1972. Collinwood is in disrepair, the few remaining survivors of the clan living off of what little remains of the family’s once-great fortune. The current denizens of the manor include family matriarch Elizabeth (Pfeiffer); her hot-tempered daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace-Moretz); nephew David (Gulliver McGrath), who speaks with the spirit of his dead mother; David’s deadbeat father Roger (Jonny Lee Miller); Dr. Julia Hoffman (Carter), the family psychiatrist; Willie (Jackie Earle Haley), the groundskeeper; and Victoria (Heathcote, again), who has just arrived by train to assist David in his unstable mental state. When Barnabas is accidentally unleashed from his centuries-long slumber by a group of unlucky construction workers, he returns to Collinwood and, after convincing Elizabeth that he is, indeed, THE Barnabas Collins, immediately sets about restoring the manor and the family fishing business, which has been nearly extinguished by the Angel Bay Cannery, whose owner just so happens to be his nemesis, Angelique. This sets off a power struggle between Barnabas and the witch, who still professes her love for the reluctant vampire.
But Barnabas’ heart truly belongs to Victoria, who bears more than a striking resemblance to his long-lost Josette. Meanwhile, Barnabas’ is having trouble adjusting to the many changes that have occurred in the world during his absence, not least of which is his inability to woo Victoria through more traditional means of his era, such as parental exchanges of acreage or….um….sheep.
While typing the above synopsis it occurs to me that one of the few things DARK SHADOWS does right is transposing the soap-y aspects of the original show over into a more cinematic form. Barnabas does spend the bulk of the film’s running time bouncing back and forth between Angelique, Victoria, and briefly lustful interlude with Dr. Hoffman. The film does not lack in the whorishly indecisive characters engaging in frivolous power plays that one would expect from your standard daytime soap opera. My problem with film is one of tone. I honestly have no idea who this movie was made for and neither, it seems, does Tim Burton or his screenwriter, Seth Grahame-Smith (ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER). The five minute prologue is appropriately dread-filled and spooky, and I even enjoyed the opening credits set accompanied by The Moody Blues’ “Knights In White Satin”, which creates a decently somber mood while also effectively selling the films’ period setting. But after this promising opening, it feels like Burton became more enamored with recreating the details of 1972 than with crafting any kind of compelling narrative or atmosphere.
The performers are all doing the best they can with the material, effectively playing into the super-serious and melodramatic aspects of the material. Johnny Depp is actually quite good in the role of Barnabas, effectively dialing back his usual weirdness to portray a man out of his time whose devotion to his family, even if he is their ancestor, is downright admirable. He brings just the right amount of sorrowful regret and reluctant savagery to the role. Barnabas does not enjoy killing, even going so far as to apologize to his victims as he does so. But it is his curse to bear, and so he must. Pfeiffer’s Elizabeth provides a strong lynchpin for the family to gather around, while as her daughter Carolyn, Chloe Grace-Moretz brings just the right amount of angsty apathy to her role. I even enjoyed Helena Bonham Carter as the sardonic, perpetually-hungover Dr. Hoffman. And sex bomb Eva Green makes a perfect foe Depp’s Barnabas, zealously overplaying Angelique’s lustful vengeance and clearly having a ball doing so.
No, the problem with DARK SHADOWS lies in the direction and the screenplay. This was obviously a very expensive movie, full of impressive CGI aerial shots of Collinsport and the surrounding countryside, but anyone expecting Tim Burton’s usual Gothic visual flair will find this film somewhat underwhelming. The entire movie is shot in soft focus, echoing the aesthetic of the soap, which is fine, and the town of Collinsport is very intricately designed. It looks like a very real seaport, obvious green screen shots aside, and felt very much similar to the town of Amity from JAWS (which, coincidentally, like this film was also produced by the late Richard Zanuck). The local populace and fishermen all feel like real people, a roving band of hippies look like real hippies, and, though I obviously cannot say so from experience, it seems like great care was taken adhering to the period details of 1972. So much so, in fact, that it seems like that was all Tim Burton was concerned with. This is quite possibly Burton’s most boring-looking movie. I think it is very telling that the only scenes in this movie that actually work are the comedic scenes of Barnabas reacting to the new world in which he has awoken. All of the trailers really played up this aspect of the film, which had me worried, as all of the jokes about lava lamps and confusion over TV sets seemed cheap and obvious. But in the body of the film, these jokes actually work quite well, breathing life into the otherwise meandering plot.
Seth Grahame-Smith’s screenplay does a decent job of setting up the various members of the dysfunction Collins’ clan in the early going, and then proceeds to not have a single clue what to do with half of them, resulting in several vital characters disappearing for vast stretches of the film. The most egregious example of this is the character of Victoria, who is set up as the main character and the audience’s window into this kooky world in the opening few minutes. However, once Barnabas arrives on the scene, she disappears from the movie for a good half hour, only to reappear fleetingly after that. The big problem here is that Barnabas spends the bulk of his screen time pining for Victoria and speaking in grand soliloquies about their love for one another, when, and I am not exaggerating, they share maybe, MAYBE, ten minutes of screen time in a two hour long movie. You cannot base the emotional crux of your main character, the very reason we as an audience are expected to care, on a relationship that is barely-formed and arguably doesn’t even exist. Other characters suffer from this same issue, including David, who only reappears when the plot demands it, and his father Roger, for whom Barnabas literally pays for his cab fare and escorts him out of the movie.
The film does have an appropriately apocalyptic final battle between the Collins’ clan and Angelique that introduces werewolves and ghostly specters and, in true Roger Corman fashion, a mansion going down in flames, but by then it’s all mindless flash that adds up to nothing. The strong family dynamic at play is the only thing that comes across as genuine in these final moments, and even then only vaguely.
I really don’t know what audience Burton and Warner Bros. were aiming for when they decided to go ahead with this one. It was released in the summer, but it’s languid pacing and overall lack of impressive set-pieces is a major turn-off for that crowd, the majority of whom have absolutely no idea the TV series even exists. Fans of the show will be turned off by the blasé attitude Tim Burton seems to have taken with the material. It seems like he was absolutely bored with the material and just churned this one out because it’s what everyone expects of him. Maybe he was too obvious of a choice to direct this. Whatever the case, DARK SHADOWS is unfortunately another in a long line of big-budget adaptations of a beloved property that completely loses sight of what made the original work to begin with. In their attempt to make a cult title with niche appeal and expand it to a broader audience, Tim Burton and company have created a bland, boring facsimile out of something that was uniquely kooky and fun.
My Rating: 6/10
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