Dark Shadows

Director Tim Burton layers on the signature quirkiness in this mannered gothic romantic farce, which is based on the 1960s supernatural soap opera. In his eighth Burton collaboration, Johnny Depp plays vampire Barnabas Collins, who returns to his Maine stately pile in 1972 after two centuries of love-struck, witch-enforced hibernation and sets about restoring his family's fortunes. The actors certainly throw themselves into the nonsense, and Burton's style is a visual treat, but in trying to capture the cult TV show's blend of eccentric comedy and full-blooded melodrama, the film's sense of madcap fun is often left high and dry. The parade of cultural references, from the Carpenters to lava lamps, also provides amusement, though the wild sex scene choreographed to Barry White is far too broad, and the action finale ridiculously overblown.