Dark Shadows: A Mad Mike’s Review

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We went and saw Dark Shadows and loved it, every single campy moment.  Johnny Depp is brilliant as the hapless Barnabus Collins and Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth, the mother of all mothers is just amazing.  I highly recommend this movie to those who enjoy the genre and for those who like to laugh, because this movie is filled with laughs at the most unexpected moments thanks to Johnny Depp’s penchant for the ad lib.

The purists among you, no doubt, will complain that it seems to sink in the middle, and then meander aimlessly to a sequel anticipating ending, and that, I suppose may be true, but the sinking is fun and so is the peek at what we can expect with the sequel.

The film is available in iMax as well as digital, and I would have loved to see it in the former, but the local theater only offered it at 9AM and that’s not the time I want to go to the movie.  It seems the Avengers had monopolized the only iMax screen.

Here’s what Rolling Stone, my favorite magazine, had to say:

If you’re not interested in what Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are cooking up, you’re missing out on one of the best go-your-own-way teams in screen history. Dark Shadows, their eighth collaboration to date, doesn’t occupy the rarefied air of Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd. It’s too scattershot for the pantheon, but at least as good as Alice and Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Burton’s visuals are a sumptuous treat, as is Depp’s unerring sense of mischief, playing Barnabas Collins, a vampire with family problems.

Based on the daily daytime soap that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971, Dark Shadows radiates affection for the TV version that starred Jonathan Frid (who died in April) as Barnabas. Resurrected from 200 years of coffin boredom, Barnabas turns up at the family manor in Maine, circa 1972, to find fast food and faster technology as fearsome a plague as the threat of the stake. The wreck of the Collinwood estate is run by the family matriarch, Elizabeth (a delicious Michelle Pfeiffer), who strains to control her brother Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), her sullen teen daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Roger’s motherless 10-year-old handful, David (Gulliver McGrath). This family is so dysfunctional it employs a full-time, live-in shrink, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter is a hoot and a half). Two centuries ago, the human Barnabas had proposed to pretty little Josette (Bella Heathcote) while having it on with hottie servant Angelique (a scary-sexy Eva Green). Little did he know that Angelique was a witch who didn’t like being spurned. Hence the vampire curse. And if you don’t think both ladies turn up in 1972, you don’t  know Hollywood.

So, have some fun this Sunday and take the family, at least the kids over 17, to see this fun flick.  You won’t regret it.

Many thanks to our friends at Rolling Stone.

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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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Robyn Jane
11 years ago

“The purists among you, no doubt, will complain that it seems to sink in the middle, and then meander aimlessly to a sequel anticipating ending, and that, I suppose may be true, but the sinking is fun and so is the peek at what we can expect with the sequel.”

So basically what they’re saying is that the movie is true to the original TV series, right?

Bill Formby
11 years ago

Thanks Mike. I was wanting to go see this movie anyway. I actually watch some of the soap versions of “Dark Shadows” and I really couldn’t wait to see what Depp would do to Barnabas. Good review. I hope you wrote off the cost of the tickets and maybe the concession stand goodies as a cost of doing business. 🙂

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