Dark Shadows (2012)

An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection.

Director:

Tim Burton

Writers:

Seth Grahame-Smith (screenplay), John August (story)

Stars:

Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green

2 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Depp	...	Barnabas Collins
Michelle Pfeiffer	...	Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Dr. Julia Hoffman
Eva Green	...	Angelique Bouchard
Jackie Earle Haley	...	Willie Loomis
Jonny Lee Miller	...	Roger Collins
Bella Heathcote	...	Victoria Winters / Josette DuPres
Chloë Grace Moretz	...	Carolyn Stoddard
Gulliver McGrath	...	David Collins (as Gully McGrath)
Ray Shirley	...	Mrs. Johnson
Christopher Lee	...	Clarney
Alice Cooper	...	Alice Cooper
Ivan Kaye	...	Joshua Collins
Susanna Cappellaro	...	Naomi Collins
Josephine Butler	...	David's Mother

Storyline

In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet-or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy...until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth ...

---

Plot Keywords:

vampire | camera shot of feet | foot closeup | female stockinged soles | female stockinged feet | 

---

Taglines:

Strange Is Relative

---

Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking

Did You Know?

Trivia

This interpretation of Barnabas Collins differs from the original, in that the original Barnabas became a reluctant vampire.

---

Goofs

The Amtrak engines are in one order in the overhead shot, then reverse themselves in the ground shot.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Barnabas Collins: [narrates] It is said that blood is thicker than water. It is what defines us, binds us... curses us.

---

Crazy Credits

The opening credits feature Victoria Winters en route to Collinwood, repeating her name to herself ("My name is Victoria Winters..."), while the prologue featured a shot of waves breaking onto a cliffshore. This is a reverse of the Dark Shadows (1966) opening, where the prologue featured Victoria Winters traveling and the title sequence was of the waves breaking upon seashore scree.

---

Connections

References Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

---

Soundtracks

Dark Shadows (Prologuea)
Written and Performed by Danny Elfman

User Reviews

one of the best of the Hollywood re-imaginings...

Lets be frank. If you had a dime for every time Hollywood took something dusty and old, and tried to turn it into something shiny and new, you could retire.

In fact, most of these attempts barely work. But (having seen this one front to back three times since its first release) I believe this is an exception and moreover I believe that viewers have become so jaded to these attempts that they instinctively rebelled against the film (hence the low rating) without even giving it a chance.

The script by Seth Grahame-Smith is witty and clever and engaging. And wonderfully demented. The cast is to die for. Eva Green and Johnny Depp are at the peak of their craft, delivering with a straight face bits of dialog that lesser actors would choke on. The supporting cast (almost all A-list with a young Chloë Grace Moretz) is rock solid.

Overall a delightfully deranged yet still entertaining exercise in being silly -- which is exactly what Hollywood aims for in these odd exercises.

The IMDb rating is much too low. Give it another chance.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA Australia UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 May 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dark Shadows

Filming Locations:

Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$29,685,274, 13 May 2012

Gross USA:

$79,727,149

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$245,527,149

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Infinitum Nihil

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1