Dark Shadows

Tim Burton (2012)

114min

12A Certificate

Review

Our Score

by Alan Jones

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.

Summary

An 18th-century nobleman enrages a witch, who turns him into a vampire and buries him alive. Finally released from his tomb in the 1970s, he sets about restoring the fortunes of his dysfunctional descendants - but the sorceress he angered 200 years earlier has not yet finished with him. Tim Burton's fantasy comedy, with Johnny Depp, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter.

Cast & Crew

Barnabas Collins Johnny Depp

Angelique Bouchard Eva Green

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard Michelle Pfeiffer

Dr Julia Hoffman Helena Bonham Carter

Carolyn Stoddard Chloë Grace Moretz

Roger Collins Jonny Lee Miller

Willie Loomis Jackie Earle Haley

Young Barnabas Collins Thomas McDonell

Victoria Winters / Josette DuPres Bella Heathcote

David Collins Gulliver McGrath

Clarney Christopher Lee

Alice Cooper Alice Cooper

Party guest Jonathan Frid

Party guest David Selby

Boardroom member Shane Rimmer

Director Tim Burton

Other Information

Language: EnglishColourTheatrical distributor: Warner BrosGuidance: Contains violence, drug abuse and some swearing.Available on: DVD and Blu-rayReleased on: 11 May 2012

Comedy Drama

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Tim Burton (2012)

Review

Summary

Cast & Crew

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