plug: Dark Shadows (2012)
"I am terribly sorry, but you cannot imagine how thirsty I am..."
Dark Shadows is a 2012 adaptation of the long-running cult-soap opera of the same name, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp (in one of his best and, all things considered, probably his last role in a Burton film) as Barnabas Collins, an 18th-century vampire who is buried alive by a vengeful witch and unearthed in 1972 to find a home among the living Collins descendants at his ole stomping grounds of Collinsport, Maine. Critically panned and mostly unappreciated by the general public upon release, Dark Shadows is a hidden gem of a spooky-seasonal comedy that takes some genuinely interesting chances with its source material while offering up some of Burton’s finest visual work in the mostly-Disneyfied, bad-CGI latter half of his career.
If you’ve seen this movie, you already know it’s a strange outlier among Burton’s 2010s output, and must’ve been impossible to market. It’s no Sweeney Todd and it’s certainly no Alice in Wonderland or Dumbo (thank god). In fact, it’s not even something in between. Yet I recall different trailers and things for this movie attempting to market it as both at the same time.
I didn’t gave Dark Shadows a chance when it came out, nor a second thought until 2016 when I heard it recommended on Smug Film, a now-defunct film podcast that fuckin’ slapped when it was still a thing. It had a super distinct collection of equally intelligent voices engaging in some of the most thought-provoking film conversations I’ve ever heard, which is why it remains a huge influence on the way I watch, think about, and talk about movies today. So when co-hosts Cody Clarke (who also makes awesome micro-budget films at a breakneck pace, several of which you can watch on Prime Video) and Jenna Ipcar (who currently does a great podcast on 1960s cinema) started talking about Dark Shadows as a “not super great but pretty delightful” spooky-season watch, I figured I had to give it a shot. It was also the weekend after the election and I was exceptionally bummed out on top of my lingering annual post-Halloween blues.
Turned out to be the ideal distraction at the time — both moody and lighthearted, colorful and cool grey, spooky and disarming, emotional and low-stakes, earnest and funny. And I was pretty stoked to watch it again this month and find that my initial impression of it held up. Seems like most critics docked this movie for having weak plotting and jumping around too much in tone. I think some of that’s going on, for sure, especially in the final act where things get a little too, idk, “Marvely” with a CGI-heavy action setpiece and stinger ending. But I also found that most of the movie didn’t jump around in tone or get any lazier with its plotting than, say, a soap opera might. It’s not quite a spoof of the Dark Shadows series (in fact, it mostly knows when to play the genre stuff straight), but it is a humorous take that feels intentional in the minutest of details.
I’ve already spoken disparagingly of CGI twice in this plug, but I actually think most of the CGI in this movie works pretty well. Burton is clearly taking some choice visual cues from some of his own films like Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow, and blending them with the aesthetic of ‘70s vampire movies like Daughters of Darkness and Dracula A.D. 1972.
And for the most part, the aesthetic cooks. The production and costume design combine early-’70s shit with gothic horror (complete with killer cameos from Alice Cooper and Christopher Lee) to great success. Apparently costume designer Colleen Atwood designed the 18th century and ‘70s costumes separately, then crossed elements of them to create a visual unity that suited the rest of the movie. It’s a strategy that effectively “ties the whole room together” as it were.
Like I said, this is a decidedly comedic, albeit earnest take on soap operas and monster movies, and it’s pretty wild how often the jokes land. The movie puts Depp’s Barnabas Collins through an endless series of fish-out-of-water gags, for example, and they go on and on without ever feeling stale. Check out this montage of Depp sprucing up the family home and business with the rest of the Collinses while figuring out how to do shit as a vampire in the modern world. Real proto-What We Do in the Shadows vibes…
Indicative of the rest of the movie, there’s nothing particularly new or exceptionally clever here, but it’s all delightfully executed with an infectious rhythm, melancholy warmth, and killer ‘70s soundtrack. Depp and the rest of the cast (Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Chloë Grace Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Lee Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, just a well-oiled ensemble from top to bottom) are all on point hitting both comedy and drama beats. Depp’s performance in particular is somehow less “costumey” (though, make no mistake, the costume is still a big deal here) and ironically more human feeling than anything he’s done with Burton since, like, Sleepy Hollow. Kind of an underrated return to form for Depp right before things with that guy all went up in Hollywood flames.
Dark Shadows isn’t a family film (in fact, it’s incredibly horny for late-Burton fare, and it dishes out its PG-13 monster violence with an ere of playful haughtiness) but it’s not a “movie for adults” either. It’s a breezy, spooky-fun time that’ll make a great addition to your recreational October viewing if you find yourself vibin’ with it.