Posts Tagged ‘Tim Burton’

This is the latest offering from the film bromance that is Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. Based on the 1960′s gothic horror soap opera of the same name it tells the story of Barnabas Collins. Barnabas’ family moved from England to Maine in the USA in the 1700′s where they founded the successful fishing town ‘Collinsport’. All seems happy in their lives until Barnabas breaks the heart of the wrong woman and winds up cursed to suffer for eternity as a vampire. Not content with that the angry servant girl turns the town against her former love and Barnabas winds up buried in an iron coffin… cut to the 1970′s where developers unearth a fairly parched Barnabas who decides immediately to return to his ancestral home and restore his family name to its former glory. Barnabas is helped and hindered in equal measure by a strange collection of his descendents in his struggle to adjust to the new century and defeat an old enemy and that’s where the hilarity ensues…

Well it’s where it should at least. I was really disappointed at the film. It lacked the originality you expect from a Burton/Depp collaboration and often felt like a low-budget B movie. The comedic moments were all fairly predictable and I only actually laughed twice in the entire film. As a Burton fan, who happens to be fond of all things fantasy, I tried to like it but even the styling seemed all too familiar to me. Is it just me who sees the similarity in the glasses used in this film and in their 2005 production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh but I’ve come to expect all kinds of movie magic when this duo get together and it just doesn’t happen in Dark Shadows. But each to their own eh? So if you do fancy taking a chance, here’s the trailer for you to enjoy, but I certainly won’t be adding this to my dvd collection.