6.19.2012
Dark Shadows
IMDb | Official Website
Overall Grade: B
A re-make of the 1960's TV series.
Plot: A young woman adopts the pseudonym of Victoria Winters and arrives in the Maine seaport town of Collinwood to take up a position as the governess of David, a young member of the Collins family who claims to see the ghost of his deceased mother. David is not the only troubled member of the once prosperous Collins family. Fortunately, their luck is about to change with the return of a long "dead" relative, the vampire Barnabas Collins, who, despite his 2 centuries spent in the ground, sets about reversing the family downturn with his unparalleled knowledge of the family manor and his supernatural powers. Of course, things can't be too peachy, because the witch who cursed him and turned him into a vampire to begin with is still in town.
Review: I can't speak about the re-make-ness of it, never having seen the original TV series (my mom says the show was more soap opera and less comedy). Still, I applaud the movie's choice to stay in the 1960s. It is throughly amusing to watch Depp's Barnabas' mind-boggle at all the changes and interactions with "modern-day" people. The vampire Barnabas as all the usual vampiric weaknesses (sunlight, silver) except for travelling over moving water. An oversight on the writer's part? I don't know. Overall I give it a B for the humor and dramatic seacliff settings.
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: historical, media: movie
