Dark Shadows

[HedwigOwl]

I never watched the TV series, so don't know much about the storyline....but from the a couple of clips on the movie I've seen so far, Johnny Depp as usual seems so very much in character...and hilarious. If this is a good representation of the movie, I'll be laughing a good deal of the time.

[Midnightsfire]

Originally Posted by HedwigOwl

I never watched the TV series, so don't know much about the storyline....but from the a couple of clips on the movie I've seen so far, Johnny Depp as usual seems so very much in character...and hilarious. If this is a good representation of the movie, I'll be laughing a good deal of the time.

No.

This movie is way off of what Dark Shadows was, which was a gothic soap-opera of a sort, that initially gave rise to the "vampire romanticism" that is seen today. It was mysterious, creepy, and kind of awesome in that it used a variety of ideas, (ghosts, time-travel, witches, werewolves, zombes, etc...) all for a daytime soap. Barnabas Collins transformation from foul creature to "hero" was gradual, and you found yourself eventually cheering this character.

This movie coming out...from the trailer it looks like Depp playing Jack Sparrow with fangs. The only thing of interest is that it's set in the early 70s. It superficially resembles the show and with its comedic tone it's not really what it was about. (It wasn't a comedy)

Pity.

[ccollinsmith]

Originally Posted by Midnightsfire

No.

This movie is way off of what Dark Shadows was, which was a gothic soap-opera of a sort, that initially gave rise to the "vampire romanticism" that is seen today. It was mysterious, creepy, and kind of awesome in that it used a variety of ideas, (ghosts, time-travel, witches, werewolves, zombes, etc...) all for a daytime soap. Barnabas Collins transformation from foul creature to "hero" was gradual, and you found yourself eventually cheering this character.

This movie coming out...from the trailer it looks like Depp playing Jack Sparrow with fangs. The only thing of interest is that it's set in the early 70s. It superficially resembles the show and with its comedic tone it's not really what it was about. (It wasn't a comedy)

Pity.

I love DS, and I thought the trailer was amusing.

However, a DS expert friend of mine spoke to the Dan Curtis Productions office about the film, and apparently the trailer is not characteristic of the film as a whole.

My friend was told that the film does go mostly in the direction of gothic horror and drama, and that the trailer contained most of the funny stuff.

So it will be interesting to see what the actual movie looks like.

[lcbaseball22]

Originally Posted by ccollinsmith

My friend was told that the film does go mostly in the direction of gothic horror and drama, and that the trailer contained most of the funny stuff.

Well that's disappointing...

Given how funny the trailer was, I was actually kinda interested even though it's a Tim Burton film. Sleepy Hollows was good though.

[Midnightsfire]

Originally Posted by ccollinsmith

My friend was told that the film does go mostly in the direction of gothic horror and drama, and that the trailer contained most of the funny stuff.

Ok, I'll keep an open mind. However, I don't think Depp should have taken the role. It just isn't Barnabus. A "name" actor like him will always be seen as the name first, the character 2nd.

Still...I shall see the movie. I'm afraid it won't do too well. It will be going against the Avengers, which will already have been in the cinema for a week.

[ccollinsmith]

Originally Posted by lcbaseball22

Well that's disappointing...

Given how funny the trailer was, I was actually kinda interested even though it's a Tim Burton film. Sleepy Hollows was good though.

I think he meant gothic horror in the sense that Dark Shadows does gothic horror... which is actually quite unique.

The Dan Curtis office may have been trying to reassure my friend a bit (he is currently writing intros for a bunch of DS comic book reprints). However, I don't think he needed much reassuring, as he found the trailer as amusing as I did.

Originally Posted by Midnightsfire

Ok, I'll keep an open mind. However, I don't think Depp should have taken the role. It just isn't Barnabus. A "name" actor like him will always be seen as the name first, the character 2nd.

Depp took the role because he is a huge fan... Same reason Tim Burton is doing the film. Katherine Leigh Scott had some interesting comments on Jonathan Frid meeting Johnny Depp when he and other original cast members made a cameo. The film has cameos by Frid, Scott, Parker, and Selby. That's reason enough to see it right there. And I think Frid even gets his wolfs-head cane!

Originally Posted by Midnightsfire

Still...I shall see the movie. I'm afraid it won't do too well. It will be going against the Avengers, which will already have been in the cinema for a week.

It will be tough going against the Avengers, but Johnny Depp has lots of fans, DS has lots of fans, and Jonathan Frid just died a week ago. It could be a surprise sleeper.

[HedwigOwl]

Originally Posted by Midnightsfire

Ok, I'll keep an open mind. However, I don't think Depp should have taken the role. It just isn't Barnabus. A "name" actor like him will always be seen as the name first, the character 2nd.

Still...I shall see the movie. I'm afraid it won't do too well. It will be going against the Avengers, which will already have been in the cinema for a week.

Actually, I think Johnny Depp is exceptionally talented at inhabiting his characters, so I've never had a problem with the name thing. Now, Tom Cruise...there's an actor where I have to work to get past his persona.

[Wab]

I'm a bit over Depp; a great actor but lately he's characterisations get on my nerves.

Even more worrying is that Depp was a DS obsessive; claiming that as a kid, he wanted to be Barnabas. Film-makers' dream projects often end badly, just look at Jackson's King Kong.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20156283_5,00.html

[cgold]

It's kind of annoying that Johnny Depp plays the same character for everything. That said, while I've stopped watching PotC and everything else he's done, the trailer for Dark Shadows actually amused me. I'm interested in seeing Johnny Depp act Captain Sparrow in Dark Shadows. Hopefully it's good.

[ccollinsmith]

Originally Posted by Wab

Even more worrying is that Depp was a DS obsessive; claiming that as a kid, he wanted to be Barnabas. Film-makers' dream projects often end badly, just look at Jackson's King Kong.

That's fair enough. But there's also Jackson's LotR, which I quite like. Also, David Tennant always wanted to play the Doctor, and a few of us think that turned out pretty well. But I'm not sure Tennant ever actually wanted to be the Doctor.

Anyway, dream projects can go either way. Let's hope this one is entertaining and doesn't trash Dark Shadows.

[IenjoyAcidPops]

Originally Posted by ccollinsmith

That's fair enough. But there's also Jackson's LotR, which I quite like. Also, David Tennant always wanted to play the Doctor, and a few of us think that turned out pretty well. But I'm not sure Tennant ever actually wanted to be the Doctor.

Anyway, dream projects can go either way. Let's hope this one is entertaining and doesn't trash Dark Shadows

Very true, plus Depp is starring in and producing this, not directing or writing. Tim Burton is directing it, Seth Grahame-Smith is writing it. I don't know about the latter, but Burton wasn't a Dark Shadows obsessive, and from the ads, this is not your father's Dark Shadows. Who knows if the movie is as campy and comic as those ads indicate, but still, I'm not worried about the film failing because the people behind it were too caught up in their own love of the show.

[ccollinsmith]

My husband and I are both fans of the original soap opera, and we enjoyed this. The movie does have segments as amusing as the trailer, but it also has something of a plot (paying tribute to a whole bunch of DS plotlines actually). Alice Cooper is used very well in the film, too, btw.

At one point towards the end, when the finale was getting a bit silly, I started thinking, "Wait! That would never happen in DS!!!" And then I remembered, "Oh, yeah, somewhere in about the 4th or 5th year, in the 1995 plot, we do see something that looks a bit like this!"

Sure the movie changed things up a bit. But it is reasonably faithful to the basic outlines of the original 5-year story - which was made up on the fly when the show originally ran.

Depp's Barnabus is not as angsty as Frid's Barnabus. And some of the interaction between Barnabus and Angelique gets silly. But some of the interaction between Barnabus and Angelique was always silly!

Neat cameo, by the way, by Christopher Lee. Hammer's Dracula himself conversing with Barnabus Collins, in the Blue Whale.

[IenjoyAcidPops]

I like it. It's not a great movie, but it has a peculiar flavor that would have me straining to find the right adjectives to describe it, and I like that. I don't even feel like there's a film in the Burton oeuvre to compare it to accurately. I'm not sure the tone was nailed, but I had a very good time with it.

That it's opening to mixed-to-negative reviews and will probably be crushed by The Avengers this weekend doesn't surprise me. Burton movies don't often open to really positive reviews across the board, and the ones that become Alice in Wonderland-size hits are few and far between. It won't really affect Burton or Depp's careers if/when this movie "flops," they'll keep making movies and they'll keep making movies together. What bothers me is that this movie will probably be labeled a creative failure the way Alice is, and the way Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is, if it isn't labeled a failure already. Charlie doesn't deserve it, Alice doesn't deserve it, and Dark Shadows doesn't deserve it. These aren't exceptional movies, but they're not bad ones.

[ccollinsmith]

I'd say it's most similar in sensibility to Burton's Ed Wood - but that's not an airtight comparison by any means.

[WelkinCooper]

I haven't seen the movie quite yet...possibly tomorrow. But I'm so looking forward to it, since I was madly in love with Barnabas Collins/Jonathan Frid, when I was a sweet young girl, and used to rush off the school bus and run up the hill to our house every day after school to try not to miss more than five minutes of it! His archaic, rather pompous manner of speaking...not to mention that nightshirt...drove me absolutely mad.

I never understood how Barnabas could prefer that insipid Josette over the beguiling witch, Angelique... LOL!

I was so sorry to hear of Frid passing away before the movie came out...

[Midnightsfire]

Well, this was certainly not a great movie. At all.
Yes, it had some entertaining moments but there was too much going on, and too incoherent, which made it all a right mess most of the time. They should have picked a direction and had fewer characters to focus on for the sake of depth. There were plenty of things that should have been more "revelatory," instead of simply dropped in.
As an example:

Spoiler: show

The doctor using Barnies blood to infect herself; another example, the werewolf showing up toward the end. Just these two ideas could have made it in a full length sequel.
This movie should have been more about the boy and his dead mother, as well as the witch.

[WelkinCooper]

Okay...I just came back from the movie. I did expect it to be camp or farce, based on the clips I'd seen, but I expected it to be better. It seemed so...half-hearted. That's pretty bad when I consider that the house itself, along with Alice Cooper, were the two biggest standouts in the film. What happened Tim (Burton)? I expected so much more from him.

Depp just didn't pull off the character of Barnabas for me, and I usually like Depp.

[Midnightsfire]

Originally Posted by WelkinCooper

Depp just didn't pull off the character of Barnabas for me, and I usually like Depp.

I agree.

Depp can do the campiness easily enough. But the character of Barnabas is one of tragedy and a persona that could have been larger than life, and that campy tone just doesn't fit, so it doesn't fit Depp. I could have seen Jeremy Irons in the role..a serious tragic-laden role, not this...joke.

[GrimeldaDursley]

I haven't seen the movie yet. Might wait till it comes out on dvd. I always thought that the original Barnabas [Frid] had a dignity about him and you could easily feel sorry for the character as portryed by him. Chiller ran a marathon of the 1991 attempt at the series last night, and I watched some of them. Still not as good, really, but okay.

I always liked Barnabas, and just would hate to see him made to look silly, if you know what I mean.

Jonathan Frid was the original and the best.

[HedwigOwl]

Originally Posted by GrimeldaDursley

I haven't seen the movie yet. Might wait till it comes out on dvd. I always thought that the original Barnabas [Frid] had a dignity about him and you could easily feel sorry for the character as portryed by him. Chiller ran a marathon of the 1991 attempt at the series last night, and I watched some of them. Still not as good, really, but okay.

I always liked Barnabas, and just would hate to see him made to look silly, if you know what I mean.

Jonathan Frid was the original and the best.

I understand Jonathan Frid did a cameo in the movie, so I'd imagine he thought it was OK or wouldn't have agreed.