We saw Dark Shadows Thursday night. I was a huge fan of the TV series when I was about 9 to 10 years old so when I first heard they were making a movie I thought, “That’s just wrong! It’s sacrilege!” But then I started seeing the advertisements and… well, you know… Tim Burton, Johnny Depp. How could I not go see it even if I did think Depp was wrong for the part of Barnabas Collins. And the verdict is…
I loved it. It was delightfully goofy and Tim Burton-ish, as you would expect, but it also had enough of the feel of the old TV series to satisfy the desire to indulge in nostalgia. The music was great too – lots of early 70′s stuff and an appearance by Alice Cooper.
Several of the stars of the TV series, including Johnathon Frid, had cameos but I totally missed all of them. I must see it again.
As I was watching the movie I realized that I really don’t remember very many details from the TV show. It’s not like Star Trek which I have been watching over and over again all these years. It was on for a few years and then it was gone. So it’s really hard for me to say how well the movie compared to the original. Which, maybe, is a good thing. Anyway, the important thing, it was a lot of fun.
May 31st, 2012 - 11:14 am
I recall being interested, but not fascinated, when Dark Shadows aired. My siblings were fanatics, and knew the whole convoluted plot.
What I primarily remember were the horrible production values – camera and boom shadows, sets so flimsily made that they fell apart during filming. And apparently they only did one take, so if a fly kept buzzing Barnabas (and he’s dead, so that make sense!) it was broadcast that way.
I’m looking forward to seeing it, but my cheesy movie of this month has to be Battleship, with physics and science holes big enough to, er, drive a battleship through.