Dark Shadows

Burton fizzled out and there was nothing left but a bunch of make up, pretty sets and once emotive themes. More than anything else, the character of Barnabas is an unintentional authorial self-reflection by a filmmaker who, since Sweeney Todd, has been copying himself and chasing the ghosts of the past. (10/05/2012)

Tim Burton's dumbest and most boring film, and I say that as a great admirer of his. So, let's summarize. Typical Burton goofy humour? There’s none of it. Burton's famous bizarre visual styling? Non-existent. The always so distinctive music of Elfman? I didn’t catch it. Immersive plot? Plot? What plot? So what the hell, at least some minor tidbits, like Barnabas's confrontation with modern times? Criminally underused. I'll let Barnabas's fangs bite me if I'm making this up, but these were my two longest hours at the movies in years. (13/05/2012)

It's such a shame that just when most viewers ran out of patience with Tim Burton, Dark Shadows came along. I actually like the master of strangeness, and the story of Barnabas Collins seems better to me than the quickly fading Alice or even more Burton-esque Sweeney Todd. There are a lot of oddities happening at Collinwood that amaze me with the director's imagination, or I can hardly resist laughing. Johnny Depp works perfectly as an atypical protagonist without batting an eye, and the rest of the film is stolen by the pubescent princess Chloe Moretz even in a smaller space. Riding the waves of Elfman's soundtrack, I made it to 90% with a slight reservation for distance and further projection, which a few years later confirmed that the rarely appreciated spectacle got stuck on the turbulent cliffs at that time. (30/05/2012)

I had fun, but unfortunately not all the time. I don't have a single reservation about what happened between the prologue and the end of the ball, where a certain Alice Cooper (the ugliest woman I've ever seen:) ) performed. The film is set in sympathetic semi-darkness, the humor fell on fertile ground in my case (especially the bon mots of Jackie's servant Earl Haley), and Depp's creation of a vampire cautiously exploring a new world amused me (Mephistopheles!) greatly... And yet it all still managed to be thrilling and engaging. So what went wrong? It was definitely in the last third. When it came to the settling of scores, the lynchings by an angry mob and the (admittedly) spectacular finale, in which, for example, one character quite senselessly became a werewolf, I yawned. That’s really too bad. I'm not going to lash out about Tim Burton being stale or anything... He did a good job at conjuring the atmosphere - he just had to keep a close eye on the screenwriter, who clearly wanted to digitally exploit the film's generous Warner Brothers budget at the last minute. Or was he hypnotized? (14/05/2012)

Dark Shadows, the 2012 version, is an absolute delight. The natural evolution of the Burton/Elfman/Depp collaboration rides on the wave of popular fandom that began in 1966 and continued as a daytime soap for five years, followed by two films. There were several failed comebacks over the next few years, with only the 1991 revival series actually succeeding. And now Barnabas is back and can once again connect a new generation of viewers to his story. The short prologue from the second half of the 18th century is wonderfully straightforward and decadent, and I love the setting and atmosphere. But Barnabas back in 1972 is better than ever. There’s a great clash with the post-flower generation, perfect clashes with Angelique (both hateful and loving) who has so far gone from witch to respected citizen of the city in a few generations. Johnny Depp makes the most of his vampire, Eva Green is the ultimate hedonist in every way, Michelle Pfeiffer is still very sexy, combining the best of her Selina Kyle and Lamia, and Helena Bonham Carter has the chops to showcase the vampire again next time. So far, it's been a perfect study of the titular vampire and the Bathory Syndrome. Among the others, we have Christopher Lee in a tiny role and Alice Cooper fans will definitely be pleased. The cameos of the original actors from the series also hold a special place. The 1970s are exactly as they deserve to be recorded here. The combination of gothic comedy is a genre I've been missing and it came just in time. (13/05/2012)