Dark Shadows

Irresistible costumes, makeup and vivid colors create a cute floral seventies atmosphere (with great opening credits). There are a few cute references and allusions, but you would expect more from Johnny Depp’s ancient vampire’s interactions with the modern world. Dark Shadows is an eccentric film that attempts to pay homage to all kinds of things Burton likes, but it’s surprisingly not very funny and the characters are just iconic figures in a story that won’t absorb you. It’s a stylish farce that looks good but has no heart or emotion. Tim Burton seems to be drying up, which is a shame. It reminded me of Death Becomes Her. (07/05/2012)

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)

Congratulations to Tim Burton for once again managing to make a bad film. And this time he tried really hard. Not a bit of darkness. Under the surface, another annoying wannabe stylish crap with a heavily made-up Johnny in the main role and an elite cast that has nothing to do under Burton’s direction. Awful, the only good thing is the soundtrack. (01/09/2012)

Meaningless bullshit whose characters act like complete idiots to a man. Or the director is an idiot. Either way, I never want to see anything from Tim Burton again in my life and I hope he's making Viagra commercials for the rest of his life. (07/05/2012)

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)

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 remember times when Tim Burton managed to capture my heart and enchant me with a film that had only a fraction of the budget of Dark Shadows. Something is simply wrong and that is despite the fact that an American studio provided exclusive conditions to the well-known director and that a number of top stars, including Burton's favorites Johnny Depp and his ex-partner Helena Bonham Carter, appear on the screen. The potential is there, but except for the sex appeal-loaded Eva Green, nothing works as I would imagine. By the way, I am one of those men who would without hesitation prefer the demonic witch over the boring Bella as the main hero. Overall impression: 55%. (17/02/2018)

Burton’s stylization is beginning to bother me a bit. He’s a good director, but everything looks just a bit distant. Depp acting is excellent, Eva Green is demonically beautiful and the rest of the family maintains a good standard. The atmosphere is extremely good, but Dark Shadows doesn’t exploit its full potential, where it should step on the gas, it puts on the brakes for the good of family fun. 70s music great, but it doesn’t come near to Elfman who was on great form again here. "Love means never having to say you're sorry..." However, it is with sincere regret that I must now kill all of you. (15/09/2012)

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)

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)

Apart from about two scenes that were already teetering heavily on the edge of awkwardness, this was two very enjoyable hours in the company of brilliant actors, wacky humor, and a rather unconventional soundtrack by Danny Elfman. Of course, Dark Shadows can't measure up to Burton's masterpieces, but it seems to satisfy Burton's (slightly tolerant) fan base as it combines tried and tested techniques from his previous films and the director's signature is still discernible here (on the other hand, something like Sweeney Todd is still a class higher). It's a different Tim Burton than the one we as fans (I include myself among that number) are accustomed to – he's getting more and more wacky, less poetic and imaginative, but still original in his own way. But it in no way deters me from watching his other work closely. (20/05/2012)