Random Movie Review - Dark Shadows

So around the time when this was being advertised, I had watched tons of Tim Burton films already and the trailers spent no time with telling me everything that made this a Tim Burton film. It's distributed by Warner Bros. who is one of Burton's main go to distributors with the other one being Disney (which includes what's now known as 20th Century Studios). It stars his best friend Johnny Depp and his now former wife Helena Bonham Carter who are both frequent collaborators of his. The music is done by Danny Elfman who is another one of his collaborators. There are probably tons of other hints that make this a Tim Burton film. But watching the trailer made me realize how predictable he is with whom he enlists into his productions. Fortunately nowadays he relies on other people and very rarely works with the above people but still does so occasionally. So with that out of the way, let's look at this very typically Tim Burton film:

The prologue is set in 1750 in which we see a young Barnabas Collins (played by Depp) and his family travel to the New World in which they establish a town in Maine of all places (I'm sure Stephen King would be so proud) as well as their grand estate known as Collinwood. Fifteen years then pass and Barnabas following advances on a woman, is then cursed by this so-called woman who is secretly a witch. She kills his parents and curse in question makes anyone he loves, die. The curse sees his fiancée die, him turning into a vampire and his town going against him. Buried alive, he then returns to the town years later in 1972 when a construction crew unknowingly releases him and spends the rest of the film getting to grips with this new era and comes across a dysfunctional family while trying to stop himself from doing the vampire things.

This film is not that great, but it does have some redeeming qualities. The soundtrack outside of Danny Elfman's score is actually pretty decent and reminds me of the Awesome Mixes in a way. The product placement is done in a clever way such as when Barnabas mistakes a McDonald's sign for being something from his distant past. But aside from that and some good acting with what the actors got, the film is pants. It's in every way a Tim Burton film and not a great one at that. We all know he can make great films even with these collaborators. This is not one of them. But at least it doesn't go down the Twilight route of what a vampire is (sparkle and be depressing all you like, but that is not how a vampire works). 7/10