Cool premise, but "reality" seeps in

Rating: 6/10 (3 April 2013)

I am old enough to remember watching the original "Dark Shadows" soap opera, but I was a kid, and so do not remember much about it. Best I recall, they played it straight. But it was, of course, a campy concept, putting Gothic horror elements into a daytime soap. Which brings us to this movie. A lot of movies seem to fall into this trap: they come up with a really good and/or novel premise for the film. And so the beginning of the movie, where they are establishing that reality is really good. But, it is a movie, which means it requires a story arc, climax, etc. superimposed upon the premise. And that is where it all goes, if not bad, it at least goes not as good. That seems to me to be what happened to Dark Shadows. It was still an amusing film, with some interesting actors doing interesting roles. Worth a look, but don't buy it.