Groovy ghoulies Depp and filmmaker consigliere Tim Burton reunite (and it's so good)

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2012)

DARK SHADOWS (2012) *** Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Chloe Grace Moretz, Gulliver McGrath, Ray Shirley, Christopher Lee, (Cameo: Alice Cooper as Himself). Groovy ghoulies Depp and filmmaker consigliere Tim Burton reunite (and it's so good) again this time in a devilishly grand silver screen adaptation to the cult '60s TV Gothic soap opera about cursed vampire Barnabas Collins (Depp in a Pete Best wig and hamming it to the hilt) whose 200 year exile beneath the ground arouses his premature burial to save his family's business and stave off immortal enemy, witch Angeilique Bouchard (gloriously exotique Green whose funereal demeanor suggests the late great Conradt Veidt's "THE MAN WHO LAUGHS" {!}) – who once again has deigns for offing his reincarnated would-be betrothed (Heathcote). While Burton goes all out on Rick Heinrichs fantastic production design; long-time fellow traveler Danny Elfman's eloquent score; a pop culture 1972 riffing jukebox featuring nuggets by the aforementioned Cooper; and beautifully epically bleak/lovely cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel – the semi-campy screenplay by novelist Seth Grahame-Smith (co-story credited to John August and again based on the late, great Dan Curtis series) seems to run on empty by the climax yet a fun cast – particularly Pfeiffer as matriarch and confidante and Haley as the drunken caretaker cum Renfeld make up for the creaky groans of puns and vampire-out-of-water trappings none-the-less. Look very sharp in blink-and-miss cameos by the original cast including Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker, David Selby and sadly the late Jonathan Frid – the original bloodsucker, who passed away one month prior to the film's release).