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‘Dark Shadows’ Will Make You Cringe… in All the Wrong Ways
This past Mother’s Day I saw Tim Burton’s latest re-imagining, Dark Shadows, at the request of my Depp-loving mama. Who could deny their mom that sweet Kentucky-born boy’s jaw line and high cheekbones? No one… if they know what’s good for them.
Since the original TV series, also titled Dark Shadows, aired in 1966 I’d only seen a few episodes before seeing this movie. I was in high school and remember not being overly impressed with the old series, which is weird because it is in some ways the precursor to shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and True Blood; a soap opera with monsters.
The new feature film wastes no time in re-telling the entire back story of the show in a short amount of time, getting us up to speed. The downside to this “cliff notes” version is that the brief introduction doesn’t leave much time for us to actually feel for the protagonist’s loss. If anything, Barnabus comes across as kind of a tactless jerk underneath all the well-mannered, high-class etiquette. It’s hard to feel for Barnabus; a rich boy who breaks the heart of girl (albeit she’s a crazy witch).
It was refreshing that they did’t make this movie in 3D, unlike so many films coming out lately. So far, the only movie that has made any sense to be in 3D concept-wise was Hugo (in my opinion, but we’ll save that for another review). A nice detail in Dark Shadows that doesn’t go unnoticed, however, was Barnabus’ old-style umbrella, which is a nod to the American illustrator and purveyor of the macabre, Edward Gorey (see artwork below).
Burton seriously needs to debut some new lead role talent, though. Everyone loves Johnny Depp, we get it, but come on! With that complaint aside the film does take a rather dry soap opera and re-imagines it into a relatively campy (though entertaining), retro-chic style comedy. Taking serious dramas and remaking them into comedies seems to be a trend lately and I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing. However, there were a few jokes and one-liners in Dark Shadows that did make me cringe (from embarrassment, not fear).
Regardless of Burton’s impeccable cinematography, trite and true casting, soundtrack (again Danny Elfman), costumes, and set design, it seemed the writing and character development was lacking. It almost feels as if Burton is afraid of taking risks and won’t go outside of his comfort zone, which leaves me to wonder if the “Tim Burton veneer” we once loved isn’t quite enough anymore.
Artwork by Edward Gorey
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Tessa Morrison
Ambidextrous left-hander and well-rounded nerd and artist grew up in the misty mountains of West Virginia where she was ridiculed for being a "weirdo" ever since she could talk. Learned to read at age 3 on Mercer Mayers "Little Critter" books and her older brother's comics. She now resides in Austin where she works at a print shop, has a collection of doomed succulents, and a line of jewelry she feebly attempts to sell on etsy. When not killing drought-hardy plants she works on anything from soft sculpture, puppets, gig posters, album art, to fused glass.
7 comments on “‘Dark Shadows’ Will Make You Cringe… in All the Wrong Ways”
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The good news is that Josh Brolin is going to be working with Burton on a “Hunchback of Notre Dame” movie and he wants to be Quasimodo, so maybe that’s a good thing.
Personally, I enjoy when people make fun of the ’70s, so I enjoyed it…even if the climax was a big WTF for me…
Got out a saw Dark Shadows and realized why I don’t like Tim Burton movies anymore. He’s really good at directing small pearls of scenes, which by them selves are pretty good (could use some editing to tighten them up)… but when you string these peals along, they just make for horrible storytelling. The only time that this really works for Burton was for Ed Wood since scene was tight on time but since your kinda doing a heroes journey by learning with Eddy how to achieve certain goal, all of these mini revelations strung together actually work as a whole… I hope that made some sense.
Haven’t seen this one yet, but I’ve still got hope for “Frankenweenie” this summer (a return to classic Tim Burton tomfoolery?). Not sure exactly what to expect, but it should be fun nonetheless.
Awesome review, btw, Tessa!
Thanks Rondal! I was afraid I might be rode out on a rail for blasphemy. I wanna see Frankenweenie too. : D
Well, I am convinced! I’l see that movie now:D
I have not yet seen Dark Shadows. This was a very good insight and kind of what I was expecting in a way. Burton has not been good with storytelling or character development for a great many years. Go back and watch a lot of Burton’s films again and you will see that you just get kind of thrust into it and made to guess what the relationships are between the characters. That’s not to say that’s always a bad thing, just that Burton always seems to lead the audience to believe they should already know who those characters are, their back stories and how they came to be within about a five minute time frame at the start.
I too would like to see Frankenweenie. But very scared it will suffer because of Burton. The original short was great. I really hope he doesn’t ruin it.
In short: Nice write up
Clearly none of you have seen the original “Dark Shadows”
I use to stay awake just to watch it when i was little.
Jhonny did good like always but watch the original show is better”!!!