Film info

• Title Dark Shadows
• Director Tim Burton
• Year 2012
• Run time 1hr 53m
• Genres Comedy, Fantasy
• Tagline Every family has its demons

Superstar Johnny Depp and macabre movie master Tim Burton reunite yet again in this silver screen adaptation of the cult classic supernatural soap opera that follows the life and loves of New England vampire Barnabas Collins. A young woman who finds herself inexplicably entwined in the vampire's fated love story two centuries earlier, DARK SHADOWS brings to light Depp's vampire from 1752 into the lava lamped vamp camp of 1972!

Fast Facts

Title: Dark Shadows Director: Tim Burton Year: 2012 Run time: 1hr 53m

Background Info

I liked the trailer for this one, a bit of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton never did anyone any harm, and it looks so very Addams Family. We were feeling a bit action weary after the Batman film, so something a bit different was in order.

Live Blog

1:43 - Barnabus is an excellent name. 3:10 - Ooh, that’s a pretty nasty way to go. 6:07 - He jumped! Short film! 7:06 - Ooh, his fingers look like they are turning into scissors. 13:58 - 200 rooms! That really would be a pain to dust. 24:01 - Films always get a lot better when Johnny Depp turns up. 30:41 - Hehehe, a troll is very confusing. 34:19 - Secret bunker under the fireplace. Noted. 36:36 - Ohh, they made Johnny Lee Miller minging! 43:19 - “Get over it,” she says, after burying him alive for 200 years. 45:20 - “A curse takes devotion.” 50:25 - It’s Captain Birdseye! 1:01:08 - “Every year I get half as beautiful and twice as drunk.” 1:08:21 - Supernatural love, eh? 1:14:37 - You can’t call actual Alice Cooper a woman. 1:21:11 - You can catch being a vampire from a blood transfusion! 1:23:41 - The child is holding a pink stegosaurus. 1:32:55 - “Fire… murder… angry mob! Run!” 1:35:33 - Never has “nothing to see here” been less true! 1:40:59 - There’s always a werewolf. 1:42:30 - Ghost rage! 1:45:49 - Surely the curse should be broken if the witch is gone?

Conclusions

It got off to a bit of a slow start, but when it got going, it was fun. It really was just like the Addams Family, only a little bit less kooky and a bit more fish-out-of-water. Towards the end, both Mr C and I thought it went very Death Becomes Her and that made us want to watch that… but I digress.

Johnny Depp was good, and there were a few one-liners in there, but I thought it was going to be more funny than it was. Entertaining but not spectacular.

**Rating: **3/5

Rating: 3 / 5