Dark Shadows [Review]

Dark Shadows is Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s eighth collaboration on a feature film. That kind of history creates certain expectations from loyal, and even casual, fans. The highly stylized Dark Shadows, based on a 1960s TV series, delivers on many of these expectations though doesn’t quite hit the mark all the way through.  Johnny Depp takes centre stage as the Barnabas Collins, Helena Bonham Carter appears in a prominent role, while Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley and the rest of the cast rounded out an excellent (but underutilized) ensemble.

Dark Shadows started off strong capturing the retro look and feel of the early seventies beautifully. Wide sweeping shots placed the audience firmly in 1972 Maine. The colours of the autumn leaves on the ground, the hippies, and references to the war matched to a stellar soundtrack were firmly juxtaposed with the Gothic set pieces; the Collins’ run down Gothic manor, Depp’s vampire Barnabas Collins and Eva Green’s scorned-witch, Angelique Bouchard among them.

The film’s strongest moments were when it played Barnabas’ fish-out-of-water (excuse me) situation for laughs as he attempted to adapt to this strange new age, get reacquainted with his family and get the family’s fishing business back up and running.

The Collins household is awash with more secrets than the home has secret passageways and a dark family curse that has loomed for centuries. Headed by matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the residents of Collinswood include her moody teenage daughter Carolyn, her nephew David who claims to see his dead mother on a regular basis, and his neglectful father Roger. Alcoholic, pill popping Dr. Hoffman (Bonham Carter) was brought in to help David come to terms with death of his mother for a month, and has stayed for three years. The clan is rounded out by Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) who manages the grounds and takes care of the family, sort of.

Despite being slightly supernatural and living in a rundown Gothic castle, the Collins’ family is almost eerily normal. One of my favourite moments of the film is when Carolyn screams “You walk on eggshells around David but no one cares about how I feel” and stomps away from the dinner table. It’s this sense of reality injected into this strange world that brings the story home. It would have been great to see more moments like that.

Dark Shadows began to drag in the middle as the story began to focus too narrowly on the strange feud between Barnabas and Angelique, the witch who cursed him, leaving the supporting characters on the periphery. The supporting cast is so strong and their characters so intriguing that it seemed a shame to have them absent from the screen for so long.

The mysterious Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote) was introduced early in the film as a surrogate for the audience, an outsider heading into Collinsport, only to have her disappear for large stretches of time. Her woefully underdeveloped character and connection to Barnabas’ long lost love Josette was a compelling story that was merely hinted at but never told.

Elizabeth Collins’ knowledge of the family curse and a few other revelations that I’ll keep under wraps, become apparent in the later on felt underplayed and could have injected new life into the thin second half of the film.

Dark Shadows is a fun, visually striking film with a killer score by Danny Elfman and rocking soundtrack featuring the likes of Alice Cooper. It’s certainly not Tim Burton at his best but it’s definitely a trip worth taking.