Dark Shadows

Rating: 6/10 (18 October 2012)

From director Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands) this film has all his usual ingredients, his recurring cast members including horror film stars, and the Gothic element mixed with dark humour, and it is based on a classic Gothic soap opera, so I was looking forward to watching it. Basically the story opens in the year 1760, the Collins family migrate from Liverpool, England to Maine, America, and the parents Joshua (Ivan Kaye) and Naomi (Susanna Cappellaro) build the fishing port city Collinsport, a few years later the Collins son Barnabas (Johnny Depp) seduces family maid and witch Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), but he tells her that he doesn't love her. Rich playboy Barnabas falls in love with the young and beautiful Josette Du Pres (Bella Heathcote) and they marry very happily, but Angelique is furious with jealousy, and she kills his parents and her former lover's new wife, and she curses him to become an immortal vampire so he will live forever in misery, and she has him buried alive. Two centuries later, 1972, the Collins family still live in Collinwood Manor: mother and wife Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), her brother Roger (Trainspotting's Jonny Lee Miller), Elizabeth's rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn (Kick-Ass's Chloë Grace Moretz), and Roger's young son David (Gulliver McGrath), and also David's psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) and mansion caretaker Willie Loomis (A Nightmare on Elm Street's Jackie Earle Haley), and they are joined by governess and Josette's reincarnation Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote). Construction workers accidentally unearth the coffin of Barnabas and he breaks out, he firstly has to end his long hunger sucking the blood of those that rescued him, and then he makes his way to mansion where he can meet his dysfunctional descendants, and after convincing Elizabeth of his identity and revealing a secret family treasure in a secret room behind the fireplace he is allowed to stay, under the condition he will not reveal the fortune or his vampire state. He finds out that the family business is near bankruptcy, and he plans to help restore the family fortunes, but this will not easy because he has to go against the successful rival fishery Angel Bay, and he is devastated to know it was established by Angelique, who has still somehow eternally beautiful, and he rejects her advances again because he is in love with Victoria. After various strange events and happenings of Barnabas trying to learn more about the modern world, and revealing his secrets to Dr. Hoffman in hypnosis, the big plan to restore the family status is to have a big party in the mansion, and the guest performer coming is heavy metal star Alice Cooper, and it is there that Victoria reveals that before becoming governess she was in an insane asylum because she could see and talk to a ghost, the spirit of Josette. We see Hoffman convince Barnabas that if he tries blood transfusions this may help him become human again, but in fact she is using his blood to become a vampire and stop her ageing, and when he finds out he drains her blood and throws her into the ocean, and we see him talk to Roger to pay more attention to David and he gives him the choice to leave or to stay, he chooses to leave and David is devastated. It is when rescuing David from a falling disco ball that all the rest of the family find out that Barnabas is a vampire when his skin is burning in the sunlight, Victoria is also shocked, so he is forced to leave and later at night he goes to Angelique, and their last encounter they made love, that he regretted almost immediately after, and she gets him to admit that he murdered Dr. Hoffman, which is recorded, and he is trapped in another coffin to be buried, and she burns down the Collinsport factory, and to give her extra cover she plays the recording to the police so that everyone will hate the Collins family. A mob are gathered to go and arrest the family, but David releases Barnabas, and when he returns to the mansion to fight Angelique they both reveal their true natures, including beautiful face cracking, scaring away the townspeople, and she manages to set the mansion on fire and admits the curse she put upon the family, including killing David's mother and turning Carolyn into a werewolf. Eventually David summons the vengeful ghost of his mother and she screams forcing Angelique to be knocked into the chandelier, before dying the witch pulls out and offers her heart to Barnabas, but he refuses it and shatters it, and she dies, but then he finds out she bewitched Victoria just like Josette to go and jump off the same cliff to die. Barnabas arrives just in time to save Victoria and wakes her up from the hypnosis, but in fact she wanted to jump on her own accord, she wants to be a vampire too, and when he refuses she jumps, and follows her to bite her neck and save her life, and she wakes up as a vampire on the rocks below, the two wake up and kiss, and just before the end we see Hoffman wake up underwater. Also starring Thomas McDonell as Young Barnabus Collins, Sir Christopher Lee as Clarney, Jonathan Frid as Guest, David Selby as Guest, Shane Rimmer as Board Member 1 and Michael Shannon as Board Member 2. Depp is terrific as the English vampire with great charm and a naive approach to the modern world, Green is enthusiastic playing the playfully evil witch, and the rest of the cast including Pfeiffer and Carter get their good moments too, Burton makes sure that there are dark, funny and serious moments throughout, a sort of love story, a family matters plot, and the mix of good and evil clashing, it all completes a satisfying and fun horror comedy drama. Good!