A mix between the Adams Family and Death Becomes Her

Rating: 6/10 (5 June 2012)

Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, what could really be all that wrong with this movie? Nothing really, though I would not put it at the top of my all time favourite Tim Burton movie (that honour goes to Alice in Wonderland) but this movie pretty much has everything that you would expect from a Tim Burton offering. It is creepy but in a very cartoony sort of way, and the characters themselves are interesting. For instance, Barnabas Collins is a vampire, and while he will act occasionally like a vampire, he is not the antagonist of the film, he is the protagonist.
To me Dark Shadows seems to be a mix of a number of movies, specifically Death Becomes Her and the Adams Family, and one would initially think that this is simply an original movie that has borrowed from others that have come beforehand until you discover that there was an old 60s television series called Dark Shadows that pretty much has the same characters (though I had no seen it nor heard of it until I read up on this film).
The story is about a boy who as a teenager has an affair with one of the scullery maids, but refuses to love her. I guess it has a lot to do with the nature of 18th century American society that the upper classes and the lower classes generally do not mix. In a way it is quite insightful of the writers considering, despite being before slavery was abolished, the so call land of opportunity still had significant class divides. In a way one did not marry below their status, and in many was that is still the case. People who live in the Hamptons do not really mix with people from the Bronx or from Queens. Okay, it is not as strict as it once was, but the upper classes still hide away in their gated communities, one one really does not want to speculate about what goes on behind those gates.
Getting back to the film, the tone is set pretty much from the beginning when a young Angelique, standing on Southhampton docks, looks admirably up at Barnabas but her mother tells her that she is cannot marry above her class, it is just not permitted. However, Barnabas uses her for his own pleasure, but refuses to love her, and thus the fun begins. As one can expect from a woman scorned, Angelique turns to the dark arts and curses the Collins family, kills Barnabas' bride, and then curses him to become a vampire, before turning the entire town together.
Fast forward to 1970 and Barnabas' coffin is uncovered and he is released into a new world. Obviously there is the humorous anecdotes of the pre-industrial person exploring a technologically advance society, however something tells me that such people would probably quickly work out that the bitumen strip that they come across is actually a road. While they may only have recently began using bitumen for roads, I do suspect that they did have roads back in the 18th century (albeit poorly maintained dirt ones).
So, this is a fun an enjoyable movie done in a style that only Tim Burton can do. Some have said that it is more of a cross between Caroline and Beetlejuice, but once again I will have to disagree, because I saw a lot more of the Adams Family and Death Becomes Her in this film than what I saw in the other two Burton movies. Burton's style generally does not change, though we must admit that Mars Attacks is not in a similar vein to many of his other movies, but it is still quite cartoony, and somewhat farcical.