Fans
of The Adams Family get psyched. Tim Burton has revived your favorite
franchise. He is calling it Dark Shadows now, but the goofy vibe remains the same. Die-hard devotees of the ostensive source
material, Dan Curtis’s cult television show, might not be overwhelmed by the
results though. Burton and his regular
repertory players certainly do their thing in the latest reboot of Dark Shadows (trailer here), openly widely
today.
Barnabas
Collins was the privileged son of an English fishing magnate, who built the
coastal Maine town of Collinsport largely through his industry. Despite his fascination with the occult, the
arrogant Collins spurns the love of Angelique Bouchard, a domestic servant who
also happens to be a powerful witch. In
retrospect, this was a mistake. Seething
in fury, Bouchard bewitches Collins and his true love, compelling her to throw
herself from the impossibly Burtonesque cliffs and turning him into an undead
vampire.
Whipping
the village rabble into a frenzy, Bouchard entraps Collins in a coffin,
secretly burying him, so he can feel the anguish of his loss and unquenched
thirst for all eternity. Then one
fateful 1972 night, workmen discover Collins’ burial site. A spot of blood-letting and a liberal supply
of fish-out-of-water gags soon follow.
It
turns out the Collins family fortunes have suffered during the centuries
Collins was away. Of course, the
prodigal patriarch sets about righting matters, through the help of his
supernatural powers. As per the rules of
Tim Burton films, Sir Christopher Lee duly appears in a cameo as a salty dog
sea captain falling victim to Collins’ mesmerism. Yes, that is one Burton tradition well worth
maintaining.
Granted,
Shadows looks great. Burton is clearly in his element when
exploring spooky old houses and the 1970’s era wardrobe and soundtrack adds the
right kind of kitsch. If only the script
had benefited from the same attention to detail lavished on the banister in
Collingwood, the Collins family manor.
Instead, the story is really just a clothesline on which to hang Adams Family-style jokes, while Collins
and Bouchard act like the Tracy and Hepburn from Hell.
As
Collins, Johnny Depp basically does his shtick.
In spite of viewer resistance, he gets laughs (particularly with his old
school swearing invoking all manner of hellfire invective), but this is very
definitely a one-note performance. At
least Eva Green seems to get it. She is
gleefully wicked as Bouchard. The fact
that she looks like she was poured into her wardrobe does not hurt either. Michelle Pfeiffer also looks great as
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the living head of the Collins household. Still, aside from Depp and Green getting
their supernatural groove on, the talented ensemble does not have much to do.
While
the original cast members, including the recently deceased Jonathan Frid,
briefly appear as party guests, the film’s truly inspired cameo features Alice
Cooper as himself. Bizarrely, Burton tries
to offer olive branches to the traditional fan-base by shotgunning about a half
dozen of the revelations from the original show into the final climax. However, it would have worked much better had
he sprinkled more of that plot throughout the film.
