Dark Shadows.

The Addams Family...Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer as Barnabas and Elizabeth Collins.

Tim Burton's new gothic comedy drama is something new that he hasn't done before. His last film, the ridiculous overdone Alice In Wonderland wasn't his best moment - in fairness Dark Shadows isn't his best either but it still raises the bar higher than Alice In Wonderland could. Burton brings back one of his regular lead actors, Johnny Depp to play Barnabas Collins, a moody, out of date, greasy haired 18th-century vampire. Depp suits the role I think, I thought since he's constantly working with Depp, he may have just hired him because he's his friend but Johnny Depp brings a lot of character in Barnabas. The prologue of the film sees a young Barnabas journey to America with his parents to set up a town - Collinsport, a pleasant costal fishing village. After not falling for the charm of sexy witch, Angelique (Eva Green) she converts him into a vampire and locks him in a coffin for two hundred years. Barnabas then awakens in 1972 to find his once magnificent manor-home, Collinwood in ruin. The current occupiers are his descendants, strong-willed matriarch, Elizabeth (Pfeiffer), moody teen, Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz), Elizabeth's sleazy brother Roger, (Jonny Lee Miller), David, Roger's precocious son, (Gulliver McGrath) and manor caretaker, Willie (Jackie Earle Haley.) One other member of the household is Doctor Julia Hoffman, (played splendidly by Helena Bonham Carter), she's smart but lazy and spends 50% of the movie sitting around drinking dark colored alcohol from tumblers not doing any work. She was hired by Elizabeth to examine David after his mother's death. 


The film is a bit raunchy for it's "12A" certificate. In a scene where Dr. Hoffman examines Barnabas, she asks him if he knows what "doctor-patient confidentiality is" and he replies "no, enlighten me." Hoffman proceeds to move her head down his body to Barnabas' horror. Another scene is also sexually explicit but if I told you about it, it'd spoil the film. This is Burton on top form, one of his best since Corpse Bride or Sweeney Todd.




4/5