1. ‘Dark Shadows’: Love can be malicious - inSing.com 6/18/12 5:34 AM
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‘Dark Shadows’: Love can be malicious
by Wang Dexian
inSing.com - 10 May 2012 11:35 AM | Updated 18 May 2012 12:41 PM
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Bad things have happened in this room, very very bad things
Movie details | Photo gallery | Buy tickets
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
The Cast: Johnny Depp, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Grace Moretz, Helena Bonham
Carter, Bella Heathcote, Jonny Lee Miller, Christopher Lee, Alice Cooper
The Buzz: Besides being a remake of a 1970s soap opera, the film also marks the eighth time that Experts
director Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have collaborated together on a film.
The Story: It is 1752 and Barnabas Collins sets sail with his parents, Joshua and Naomi from
Liverpool to North America. There, the family runs a successful fishing empire and Barnabas
becomes the heir of the Collins family. He grows up exceeding handsome and adopts a playboy
lifestyle long before it was fashionable.
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2. ‘Dark Shadows’: Love can be malicious - inSing.com 6/18/12 5:34 AM
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Unfortunately for him, he breaks the heart of a servant, Angelique Bouchard who just happens to
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be a witch and does terrible things to the Collins family, including killing Barnabas' parents, his
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lover and turning him into a vampire. She turns the town against him and buries him alive. When
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he finally awakes in 1972, Barnabas discovers that his manor, Collinwood is a mere shadow of its
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previous shell, and seeks to restore it.
inSing.com thinks: 8 times. That is the amount of times that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have Search for feature articles
collaborated and this partnership is surely in the realm of other auteur/muse partnerships like
Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese. While we’re no hardcore fan of this particular pairing, Depp-
Burton movies have always had an element of eccentricity and weird humour to them and ‘Dark
Shadows’ is no different.
What ‘Dark Shadows’ does well is clear: Johnny Depp is clearly having fun playing a vampire,
hamming it up with relish with a classy Victorian accent and playing for laughs with his fish out of
water predicament.
Also read: 9 best Johnny Depp characters
The mix of comedy and campy horror gives Depp lots of room to get his freak on and the results
are mostly effective. Paired with Eva Green playing the role of the spurned witch, the two are often
electric on screen, constantly walking a tightrope of “Will he or won't he?”
Green is a particular delight, playing the role of the villainous vixen with a playful sneer that fits in
well with the rest of the movie; the highlight being a supernatural powered sex romp between her
and Depp's vampire. The balance between camp and horror is struck quite nicely and delivers
quite a few laughs although it might not be that accessible to everyone else's tastes. It's really quite
a bizarre mix of comedy, horror, camp and even a fair bit of melodrama, thanks to the movie's
theme of familial relations constantly coming into play.
Also read: Interview with Johnny Depp
Obviously with ‘Dark Shadows’ being a Burton movie, there is some great Gothic art direction
throughout and he also turns it into a homage to two things he obviously loves: vampires and the
70s. Cameos from Christopher Lee, the most famous Dracula and Alice Cooper, the vaudeville-
horror inspired rock-God from the 70s certainly drive that point home and will be a hoot for any
viewer who knows their stuff.
Unfortunately, the major ensemble cast is somewhat of a let-down. Michelle Pfeiffer's embattled
“Elizabeth Collins Stoddard” matriarch is a great supporting character. Beset with dealing with the
downward spiral of her family, she secretly allows Barnabas back in the fold, seeing the good man
that he still is and the good it could bring to her family.
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3. ‘Dark Shadows’: Love can be malicious - inSing.com 6/18/12 5:34 AM
Chloe Grace Moretz has emerged as one of the film industry’s most sought-after young actresses
It's a performance that shows her weariness but there is still the dry wit that Pfeiffer is known for.
Other than that, the rest of the cast is just there to make up the numbers, although Chloe Moretz's
young hippie “rock grrl” character added a tinge of comedy to otherwise morose family
Where the movie truly runs into some problems is through its script, which might be slightly too
ambitious for its own good. The movie attempts to cover a lot of ground, almost too much, with
themes like love and possession playing out between Barnabas and Angelique. Not to mention the
familial love emphasized right at the start of the movie by Barnabas and his father.
Also read: 2012 summer movie preview - The remakes
The broad scope of these two themes, coupled with it being set against a corporate war between
the Collins' and Angelique's fishing companies make the film a little too bipolar for its own good, as
it swings to-and-fro from Barnabas' quest to end his curse and find true love. Thus, the film does
feel a little too uneven.
Despite all that, ‘Dark Shadows’ is a fun offering. Stylish, humorous and at times, just plain
eccentric, ‘Dark Shadows’ could surely have benefited from a tighter focus but still, it has enough
moments to earn your 10 bucks... especially if you're a diehard fan of Tim Burton and Johnny
Depp.
'Dark Shadows' is showing in theatres everywhere
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