Less Would Have Been Much More

Rating: 6/10 (13 April 2015)

If Burton had scaled back the action to include only Barnabas, Angelique and Victoria/Josette, then the film would have worked 100% better than it does. However, he tries to shoehorn many of the elements contained within Dark Shadows the series (which runs to countless episodes) and as a result the film collapses under its own weight, with ghosts and werewolves aplenty thrown into the chaotic climax. The film looks great, and Eva Green is as marvellous as ever, (with Depp in camply amusing form, albeit in a role that he basically sleepwalks through) but the tone is all over the place. One minute the film is Gothic horror and vampiric murders, the next it's slapstick comedy, then it's all Austin Powers 'man-out-of-time' farce until finally, sadly, it is an empty and noisy CGI-fest. Furthermore, Chloe Grace Moretz and Helena Bonham Carter give the film little to nothing (I'm not blaming the actresses though, as their characters are just not fleshed out enough, and Moretz's supernatural contribution is simply too little and comes way too late in the game to give anything but palm-slaps to the face on the part of the viewers), and so they just take up valuable screen-time. Perhaps directors shouldn't remake shows that they love, as it seems to seldom pan out well.