Dark Disappointment Lost in the Shadows

Rating: 4/10 (21 June 2013)

This is one time I can't appreciate Tim Burton's work. When you remake a show.. you're suppose to hopefully elaborate better than the original, not stoop low by making it into something it wasn't.. a comedy, fantasy. Dark Shadows (1966- 1971) was a drama, fantasy, horror. Dark Shadows (2012) was no better than the degraded parody of The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) where everyone seem like outdated nerds. Ironically, this Barnabas was many years behind the times. This remake or version isn't a good tribute to Dan Curtis and must be surely a disappointment to long time faithful fans of Dark Shadows. It was bad enough I barely got a glimpse and recognized only David Selby who was Quentin Collins from the original TV show. Only to later learn Jonathan Frid was also in it which I never even saw as a Guest. Or any of the other original cast members.. if any were also in it. The other bad choice for this movie was all those 1970's songs that was played, that I couldn't wait til they stopped; purely an awful distraction, that took away from enjoying it. Even though it suppose to fit in the 1970's timeline that Barnabas awakened. Alice Cooper in it was no better compliment to it. Then there were those long boring dialogs between Barnabas and others which I could barely hear, let alone see any real purpose of what was being said. I started to recognize certain parts in it were cloned from other movies like Made in America (1993) where Tony Danson and Whoopi Goldberg were almost wrecking the home just getting carried away into getting romantically into each other. Only in this case it was Barnabas and Angelique doing it worse. The havoc Angelique did on Barnabas eventually began to seem like it was clone from Addams Family Values (1993) where the uncle's gold-digging new love Debbie Jellinsky was doing her worse on Festus in a similar destructive manner. It seem like the ending part where Barnabas hurries up to change Victoria into a vampire after she went to her death off a cliff, must of been something Tim Burton wanted to see happen. Through this it's like the movie is depicting where it looks like evil wins over good when it doesn't in theee end; this part I liked. I can understand Johnny Depp being so obsessed with the Barnabas character that he wanted to be him but this version isn't a winner. I would recommend to Dark Shadow fans to see the (1991) version of Ben Cross as Barnabas instead.