Dark Shadows - Review

Tim Burton's newest film, Dark Shadows, follows a 200+ year old vampire named Barnabas Collins as he awakens in 1972 after being cursed in the late 1700's. He awakens to find his family fortune and mansion in danger along with finding their dysfunction.


I have been excited for Dark Shadows for many, many months and waited quite patiently for the trailers and promo photos. If you read my blog regularly you might have noticed. With that said it is no surprise that I dragged my sick self out of bed to see it opening weekend. I am happy to say that I wasn't disappointed at all.
I honestly think this is the best Tim Burton film since Sweeney Todd in 2007. It was definitely better than Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That's for damn sure. The cast was fantastic, the scenery was nice, the setting surprisingly fit the scenario. The previews are kind of misleading but at the same time they do it justice. There is a decent amount of humor in the film but it is a lot darker than the previews are making it seem. I anticipated that going in and I'm glad I was correct. Keeping that in mind, I felt kind of bad for the people who brought their young kids to the theater with them. It's not extremely adult but there is a noticeable amount of adult humor and situations. Examples being Barnabas having destructive vampire sex and the youngest boy mocking his cousin at the dinner table about touching herself. Seeing that Barnabas is a vampire there is a decent amount of blood as well.
Overall I think it was well done. There were parts where it dragged a little bit and got a little boring but it was brief. The last 20 minutes or so had the best stuff in it but the lead into it was good enough. Like I said, this was by far my favorite Burton film I have seen in a while. I'm happy.


Now for spoilers. If you haven't seen Dark Shadows and you want to I would suggest not looking at these. Unless you are a honey badger and just don't give a shit.
























First of all, let me just say that Chloe Moretz is one fucking badass girl. The twist of her being a werewolf was actually pretty fun for me. I liked how they tied the witch into the Collins family curse by including her cursing the children into being "monsters" like Barnabas. Carolyn turned out to be a werewolf and David could see ghosts.
I also liked that Barnabas was a badass vampire who killed and hissed in the sun. The part when he got set on fire and didn't realize it was hilarious. His old fashioned speech and persona was hilarious, too. Especially when he basically called Carolyn a hooker.
Loved Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter. Both of their characters were great.