Taglines: Every family has its demons.
In 1760, the Collins family moves from Liverpool to the Maine to expand the family empire and dedicate to fishing business. One year later, they are successful and the city of Collinsport is raised in the place. Then, for fifteen years, Joshua and Naomi Collins build their Collinswood mansion. Their servant Angelique Bouchard has an unrequited love for their son Barnabas that actually loves Josette DuPres. But Angelique is a powerful witch that curses Barnabas and his family, killing his parents, Josette and turning him into a vampire.
Then she brings the locals that lock him in a coffin and bury him for the eternity. In 1972, the young Victoria Winters comes to the decadent Collinswood to be the tutor of the young David Collins, who lost his mother two years ago. She finds a dysfunctional family composed by the devoted matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard ahead of the family business that is near bankruptcy; her rebel daughter Carolyn Stoddard; her brother and David’s father Roger Collins; the psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman that takes care of David; and the servants Willie Loomis and Mrs. Johnson.
When eleven workers release and awake Barnabas, he drinks their blood and returns to Collinswood. He meets Elizabeth and she tells him that the family has been cursed then Barnabas shows a hidden room with a treasure inside and he promises to protect them and assume the business. When he sees Victoria, he rekindles his love for her. But the witch Angelique is still alive and is prominent in the town and she has not forgotten Barnabas or that he broke her heart.
Dark Shadows is a 2012 American horror comedy film based on the gothic television soap opera of the same name. It was directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Bella Heathcote in a dual role. The film had a limited release on May 10, 2012, and was officially released the following day in the United States.
The film grossed $79,727,159 in the United States and Canada, along with $165.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $245.5 million. For a Burton film, Dark Shadows achieved below-average domestic box office takings, with many commentators attributing that to the domination of The Avengers. However, the film was popular overseas; it came second to The Avengers in most countries in regard to opening box office takings.
The soundtrack features a score of several contemporaneous 1970s rock and pop songs, along with others from later and slightly earlier, including “Nights in White Satin” by The Moody Blues, “I’m Sick of You” by Iggy Pop, “Season of the Witch” by Donovan, “Top of the World” by The Carpenters, “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” by Barry White and “Get It On” by T. Rex. Alice Cooper, who makes a cameo in the film, sings “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “Ballad of Dwight Fry”. A cover of the Raspberries’ song “Go All the Way” by The Killers also plays over the end credits.
The soundtrack, featuring 11 songs (including two score pieces by Danny Elfman, and Depp’s recitation as Barnabas of several lines from “The Joker” by Steve Miller Band) was released on May 8 as a download, and on various dates as a CD, including on May 22 as an import in the United States, and on May 25, 2012 in Australia. Songs not featured on the soundtrack that are in the film include “Superfly” by Curtis Mayfield, “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John and “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath.
Film Review for Dark Shadows
Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows” is all dressed up with nowhere to go, an elegant production without a central drive. It offers wonderful things, but they aren’t what’s important. It’s as if Burton directed at arm’s length, unwilling to find juice in the story. Yes, the original TV soap opera is a cult classic, but he approaches his “Dark Shadows” as an amusing trifle, and for a feature-length film, we need more than attitude to sink our teeth in.
The gripping early scenes create expectations the movie doesn’t satisfy. We learn the early history of the Collins family in America, which would create a fishing dynasty and spawn the vampire Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp). Burton is famous for his visuals, and here we have a symphonic evocation of the gothic sensibility. He shows the erection of the Collinwood Manor, a shriek of architecture, on a hill above the new Maine town of Collinsport. We learn how young Barnabas falls in love with the angelic Josette (Bella Heathcote) and spurns the love of Angelique (Eva Green).
Angelique, a witch, forces Josette to flee in terror to a cruel stony finger pointing out from a rocky cliff. Waves dash the stones far below. He pursues her, tries to save her, but is unable to stop her from falling to her death. This is great storytelling, because it’s played straight. I didn’t expect the whole movie to be pitched at this level, but it sets a note the rest never matches. Barnabas, made into a vampire by Angelique, is wrapped in chains, sealed in a coffin and buried for 190 years. The story moves forward to 1972, where the joke is that a vampire like Barnabas from the 1700s is out of place.
Freed from his entombment, Barnabas returns to Collinwood to find it dilapidated and cobwebby, and the family fortunes in disrepair. As proud of his family as any 18th century merchant prince and as proud of the mansion as when his parents were building it, he moves in to set things right.
The current inhabitants include Elizabeth Collins (Michelle Pfeiffer), who runs the family fortunes; her teenage daughter, Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz); Elizabeth’s useless brother, Roger (Jonny Lee Miller); Roger’s disturbed son, David (Gully McGrath), and a live-in psychiatrist named Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter). Family dinners are a depressing event, with everyone clustered around one end of a banquet table, except for Carolyn, who skulks at the other end. Meals are served by Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley), a wizened drunk.
Johnny Depp, as pale as anyone might be after being buried for two centuries, caresses architectural details with talon-like fingernails, and treats the others with elaborate courtesy. His performance is arch and mannered, as perhaps it should be, but so is everyone else’s; the result falls between satire and lampoon, and creates such a distance between characters and style that nobody seems to much care what happens — except for the witch Angelique, who is still alive and whose Angel Bay fish cannery is bankrupting the Collins family.
Having ordered that he be buried forever, Angelique is still inexplicably hot for Barnabas. But there’s tension because of the young and beautiful Victoria, who has become the new governess; surely it is no coincidence that she is played by Bella Heathcote, who also was Josette. Now we have the same romantic rivalry reborn in modern times.
Much of the amusement comes from Depp’s reactions to 1970s pop culture. The soundtrack is populated by rock classics, Carolyn’s room is decorated like any teenage girl’s, and Barnabas is torn between alarm and fascination when he sees his first lava lamp. Yes, now that you mention it, lava lamps do somewhat resemble coagulated gobs of blood floating in urine.
With reasoning suitable for a Jane Austen hero, Barnabas restores Collinwood to its former glory and decides to hold a formal ball to impress the locals. Carolyn pouts that this is unbelievably out of touch. In a good idea that doesn’t pay off, Alice Cooper is hired to perform. “The ugliest woman I’ve ever seen!” Barnabas exclaims after examining Alice through his opera glasses. Alice Cooper’s appearance, alas, is limited to a few snatches of songs — typical of the cameo appearances that rock stars used to make in movies that had nothing to do with them. We are denied the intriguing prospect of an extended scene between Barnabas and Alice.
This is the eighth collaboration between Burton and Depp, who go back to “Edward Scissorhands” (1990) together. We know we can expect a pitch-perfect performance by Depp, who plays Barnabas with a lasered intensity, and we know Burton’s sets and art direction will be spectacular. I think the best use of Depp in a Burton world was “Sleepy Hollow” (1999). Here Depp seems to inhabit a world of his own, perhaps in self-defense. The others seem to be performing parodies of their characters. “Dark Shadows” begins with great promise, but then the energy drains out.
Dark Shadows (2012)
Directed by: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gulliver McGrath, Susanna Cappellaro
Screenplay by: Seth Grahame-Smith
Production Design by: Rick Heinrichs
Cinematography by: Bruno Delbonnel
Film Editing by: Chris Lebenzon
Costume Design by: Colleen Atwood
Set Decoration by: John Bush, Angela Kyriacou, Greer Whitewick
Art Direction by: Neal Callow, Dean Clegg, John Dexter, Christian Huband, Jason Knox-Johnston, Chris Lowe, Phil Sims
Music by: Danny Elfman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: May 11, 2012
Hits: 150
