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#"Is It Her?" – 0:43
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#"Vicki's Nightmare" – 1:26
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Revision as of 00:00, 22 May 2012

Dark Shadows
File:Dark Shadows 2012 Poster.jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed byTim Burton
Screenplay bySeth Grahame-Smith
Story byJohn August
Seth Grahame-Smith
Produced byRichard D. Zanuck
Graham King
Johnny Depp
Christi Dembrowski
David Kennedy
StarringJohnny Depp
Michelle Pfeiffer
Helena Bonham Carter
Eva Green
Jackie Earle Haley
Jonny Lee Miller
Chloë Grace Moretz
Bella Heathcote
CinematographyBruno Delbonnel
Edited byChris Lebenzon
Music byDanny Elfman
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • May 11, 2012 (2012-05-11)
Running time
113 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$150 million[1]
Box office$132,021,759[1]

Dark Shadows is a 2012 American comedy horror film based on the 1966–1971 gothic horror soap opera of the same name. The film is directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a 200-year-old vampire, and Michelle Pfeiffer as his cousin Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, a reclusive matriarch of the Collins family. It was released on the evening of May 10, 2012,[2] opening fully the following day in the United States.[3]

Plot

In 1760, Joshua (Ivan Kaye) and Naomi Collins (Susanna Cappellaro) sail from Liverpool to North America. They set up a fishing port in Maine called Collinsport, and also build Collinwood Manor. Their son, Barnabas (Johnny Depp), grows up to be a wealthy playboy in the town. He breaks the heart of one of their servants, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), who is a witch and kills his parents in revenge and curses his family. He then studies dark magic to prove Angelique is in fact a witch, falling in love with Josette du Pres (Bella Heathcote) in the meantime. Angelique, in an act of jealousy, puts a spell on Josette, which forces her to leap to her death from a nearby cliff called Widow's Peak. Barnabas runs after Josette but he arrives too late. He jumps over the cliff to kill himself, but Angelique has already turned Barnabas into a vampire before he reaches the bottom. Soon after, Angelique convinces the townspeople that Barnabas is a vampire, having them capture him and bury him alive in a chained coffin in the woods.

In 1972, a woman named Maggie Evans (Bella Heathcote) travels by train to Collinsport, responding to an advertisement to be the governess to a young boy, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). While on the train, she decides to change her name to Victoria Winters, practicing asking the family to call her "Vicky". She hitches a ride with hippies to Collinwood Manor, where she meets Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), the matriarch of the family, and the family's servants, Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) and old Mrs. Johnson (Ray Shirley). It is explained that David's mother died at sea and he believes his mother speaks to him. Elizabeth takes Victoria on a tour of Collinwood Manor, which is falling into disrepair. While on the tour, Victoria meets Elizabeth's 15-year-old rebellious and provocative daughter Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz). At dinner, Victoria meets the rest of the dysfunctional family: Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), Elizabeth's brother and indifferent father of David, and Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), an alcoholic psychiatrist who had been hired to help David overcome his belief that he can speak to his dead mother, but thus far has been unsuccessful. David appears in a sheet to look like a ghost, trying to frighten Victoria. David talks of his mother speaking to him, and Carolyn calls him crazy, but Victoria states she believes in ghosts. After dinner, Victoria is in her room and believes she sees David again appearing under the same sheet. She removes the sheet, but sees the ghost of Josette instead, who remarks "He's coming", before hovering to the large chandelier in the foyer and falling as she did from the cliff.

That night, Barnabas is accidentally freed from his coffin by a group of construction workers. He feeds on them and makes his way back to Collinwood Manor, finding his once-magnificent mansion in ruins. Barnabas convinces Elizabeth that he really is who he says he is, and asks her of the family curse and the story of how he died. She answers that nobody knows how he died so he explains that is because he didn't. Barnabas then shows her a secret room full of treasures as a proof of his identity. She says he may stay with them under two conditions: that he tells no one else of the riches in the secret room and that he tells no one that he is a vampire, to which Barnabas agrees. Barnabas is introduced to the family at breakfast. Elizabeth explains that he is a distant relative from England and Barnabas explains he has come to help the family restore their business and family name.

Angelique, now a respected and successful resident of Collinsport, soon discovers that he has escaped his shallow grave. She wants to win him back so she visits the mansion and tells him to join her or he will regret it. He tells her he has no feelings for her and she leaves. He discovers that his family's fishing company is in ruins because of Angelique's business, Angel Bay Fishery, and takes steps to revitalize and rebuild the company (and the mansion), gaining the trust of the family in the process. As the Collins' fishery begins to pick up, Angelique calls Barnabas to her office for a meeting, again offering that he either join and love her or she will destroy him and everything he loves. She manages to seduce him and they make love, wrecking her office in doing so. But when they are finished, he says can never love her as he has fallen in love with Victoria, again leaving. Barnabas turns to Carolyn for help as he tries to win over the heart of Victoria but doesn't know how. Carolyn explains he needs to be less "weird" and tells him he should get some normal friends. Later that night Barnabas goes out into the woods with the same hippies that drove Victoria to the mansion. They discuss love before Barnabas regretfully feeds on them.

The next day, Dr. Hoffman hypnotizes Barnabas in a therapy session and he confesses to being a vampire, as well as to the murders of the construction workers and the hippies. She is shocked and fascinated by him and runs to Elizabeth to ask why she keeps such a secret to herself. Elizabeth tells her not to tell anyone else of his secret. Dr. Hoffman offers to help turn Barnabas into a human via blood transfusions. At dinner, Barnabas decides to restore their name by having a ball. Carolyn retorts that they need to have a party instead, suggesting Alice Cooper as entertainment. Barnabas agrees and they throw a party for the entire town at their mansion, at which Alice Cooper performs. On a balcony outside of the party, Barnabas finds Victoria, to whom he expresses his love. She explains her troubling past to him through flashbacks. It is revealed that Victoria was sent to a mental hospital by her parents for talking to the ghost of Barnabas' love, Josette. She is seen getting electroshock treatment as a child, then escaping through the window with sheets years later. They passionately kiss after she says she feels like she has always known him. Angelique crashes the party and sees Barnabas and Victoria kissing, becoming enraged. The next day, Barnabas discovers Dr. Hoffman is not giving him human blood, but taking several pints of his blood instead to turn herself into a vampire to avoid growing old. Enraged, Barnabas presumably kills her by draining her dry and dumps her body in the ocean with Willie's help. He then discovers David's sleazy father Roger snooping around the study, trying to find the secret room. Barnabas gives him a choice: stay and be a father or leave; Roger chooses the latter. Right after Roger leaves, Barnabas accidentally stands in a beam of sunlight after saving David from a falling disco ball and his skin burns. His secret is revealed to the children and Victoria and they are horrified.

Barnabas meets with Angelique that night and refuses her offer once more to cooperate with her to run the town, also refusing to return her love. While leaving her office, he is forced into a coffin waiting for him right outside her door, and Angelique then binds him with chains and drives him to the cemetery, leaving the coffin in a crypt and telling Barnabas she will destroy everything he loves and then come back for him in a few days. Just before driving to the cemetery, she blows up the rebuilt Collins canning factory by reciting a spell. While the fire is still raging, David learns from his mother that Barnabas has been locked up and where to find him. David goes to the crypt and frees Barnabas from the coffin. While the police and firefighters try to put out the fire, Angelique plays a cassette recording she recorded during her last meeting with Barnabas in which he confesses to being a vampire and killing the construction workers, the hippies, and Dr. Hoffman, revealing that the Collins family is harboring a murderer. This turns the townspeople against the family once more, leading them to the mansion. At the mansion, Angelique is shocked to see that Barnabas has escaped. Barnabas offers to be arrested in place of the family, but then grabs Angelique, prompting a policeman to shoot him several times. Revealed as immortal, he then shows the townspeople Angelique is a witch: as he squeezes her, her skin cracks like porcelain. The townspeople run away from the mansion in horror. Angelique sets the mansion on fire, and brings the wooden statues and portraits to life, as well as making blood run down the walls of the living room and splintering the wood of the mansion. Carolyn, who is revealed as being a werewolf (because Angelique had sent a werewolf to bite her as a baby), fights her, but is beaten back. Elizabeth, armed with a shotgun, stands up to Angelique, and David summons the ghost of his mother Laura (whom Angelique admits killing), who throws her into the chandelier. Angelique, her porcelain skin fracturing, literally offers her heart to Barnabas, insisting she did in fact love him, but he refuses, telling her she isn't capable of love and only wanted to control him. Upon being rejected by Barnabas, her heart literally breaks and she dies. Barnabas looks for Victoria, who hasn't been seen since it was revealed that he was a vampire. David tells him that his mother said she is headed for Widow's Peak. Barnabas catches up with her there, but Victoria tells him that they can never be together as she lives in the light and he lives in the shadows. Angelique's spell makes Victoria jump over the cliff. Barnabas jumps off after her and bites her on the way down, turning her into a vampire to save her life. Afterward, Victoria tells Barnabas to call her Josette, and Barnabas narrates that his curse has ended. The film then ends underwater, with a school of fish swimming away from the body of Dr. Hoffman, who opens her eyes, revealing that she too is now a vampire.[4]

Cast

At the San Diego Comic-Con 2011, it was also confirmed that four actors from the original series appear in the film. In June 2011, Jonathan Frid, Lara Parker, David Selby and Kathryn Leigh Scott all spent three days at Pinewood Studios to film cameo appearances. They all appeared as party guests during a ball held at Collinwood Manor.[11][12][13] Frid died in April 2012, making this his final film appearance.

Production

Dark Shadows is directed by Tim Burton based on a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith. In July 2007, Warner Bros. acquired film rights for the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows from the estate of its creator Dan Curtis. Actor Johnny Depp stars in the film.[14] The project's development was delayed by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. After the strike was resolved, Tim Burton was attached to direct the film.[15] By 2009, screenwriter John August was writing a screenplay for Dark Shadows.[16] In 2010, author and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith replaced August in writing the screenplay.[17] August, did, however, receive story credit with Smith for his contribution to the film. Filming began in May 2011. It was filmed entirely in England, at both Pinewood Studios and on location.[4] Depp attempted to emulate the "rigidity" and "elegance" of Jonathan Frid's original Barnabas Collins, but also drew inspiration from Max Schreck's performance in Nosferatu.[18]

Additional crew members and Burton regulars are production designer Rick Heinrichs, costume designer Colleen Atwood, editor Chris Lebenzon and composer Danny Elfman.[4] French cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel — known for his work in Amélie, A Very Long Engagement and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — worked on the project.

Marketing

The trailer for the film premiered exclusively on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on March 15, 2012. That same day, the trailer made its online debut on Apple.com. According to MTV, Tim Burton has opted "for gonzo comedy that should please many, but may rile fans of the original soap opera."[19]

Music

Score

Untitled

The film was again scored by long-time Burton collaborator, Danny Elfman. An album featuring 21 tracks of compositions from the film by Elfman was released on May 8, 2012.[20]

Track listing

  1. "Dark Shadows Prologue" (Uncut) – 7:52
  2. "Resurrection" – 2:54
  3. "Vicki Enters Collinwood" – 1:21
  4. "Deadly Handshake" – 2:14
  5. "Shadows (Reprise)" – 1:08
  6. "Is It Her?" – 0:43
  7. "Barnabas Comes Home" – 4:18inipon'pin
  1. "Vicki's Nightmare" – 1:26
  2. "Hypno Music" – 0:47
  3. "Killing Dr. Hoffman" – 1:14
  4. "Dumping the Body" – 0:58
  5. "Roger Departs" – 2:33
  6. "Burn Baby Burn / In-Tombed" – 2:49
  7. "Lava Lamp" – 2:17
  8. "The Angry Mob" – 4:40
  9. "House of Blood" – 3:38
  10. "Final Confrontation" – 2:20
  11. "Widows' Hill (Finale)" – 3:47
  12. "The End?" (Uncut) – 2:42
  13. "More the End?" – 1:55
  14. "We Will End You!" – 1:09

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack features a score of several contemporaneous 1970s rock and pop songs, along with others from later and slightly earlier, including "Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues, "Top of the World" by The Carpenters, "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" by Barry White, "I'm Sick of You" by Iggy Pop, "Season of the Witch" by Donovan, "Get It On" by T. Rex and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. Alice Cooper, who makes a cameo in the film, sings "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "Ballad of Dwight Fry". A cover of the Raspberries' song "Go All the Way" by The Killers also plays over the end credits. The soundtrack, featuring 11 songs (including two score pieces by Danny Elfman, and Depp's recitation as Barnabas of several lines from "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band) was released on May 8 as a download,[21] and on various dates as a CD, including on May 22 as an import in the United States,[22] and on May 25, 2012 in Australia.[23]

Track listing

Dark Shadows: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.TitleArtistLength
1."Nights in White Satin"The Moody Blues4:26
2."Dark Shadows – Prologue"Danny Elfman3:56
3."I'm Sick of You"Iggy Pop6:52
4."Season of the Witch"Donovan4:56
5."Top of the World"The Carpenters3:01
6."You're the First, the Last, My Everything"Barry White4:35
7."Bang a Gong (Get It On)"T. Rex4:26
8."No More Mr. Nice Guy"Alice Cooper3:08
9."Ballad of Dwight Fry"Alice Cooper6:36
10."The End?"Danny Elfman2:30
11."The Joker"Johnny Depp0:17

Reception

Box office

As of May 20, 2012, the film has grossed $50,721,759 in the United States, along with $81,300,000 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $132,021,759.[1]

Critical response

Dark Shadows has received mixed to negative reviews from film critics, with a current "rotten" percentage of 41% and an average rating of 5.4/10 on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 201 reviews.[24] Reviewers have praised the visuals, acting and the background stories of the characters, but have negatively received the direction and storyline, with the Rotten Tomatoes consensus reading: "The visuals are top notch but Tim Burton never finds a consistent rhythm, mixing campy jokes and gothic spookiness with less success than other Johnny Depp collaborations."[24] Metacritic gives the film a score of 55% based on 42 reviews.[25]

Roger Ebert offered that "[The film] offers wonderful things, but they aren't what's important. It's as if Burton directed at arm's length, unwilling to find juice in the story."[26] Ebert later noted that "Much of the amusement comes from Depp's reactions to 1970s pop culture",[26] eventually concluding that the film "begins with great promise, but then the energy drains out", giving it two and a half stars out of four.[26] Manohla Dargis, writing for The New York Times, said that it "isn't among Mr. Burton's most richly realized works, but it's very enjoyable, visually sumptuous and, despite its lugubrious source material and a sporadic tremor of violence, surprisingly effervescent,"[27] and opined in a mostly positive review that Burton's "gift for deviant beauty and laughter has its own liberating power".[27]

Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave the film a mixed two and a half stars, claiming, "After a fierce and funny start, Dark Shadows simply spins its wheels,"[28] and adding that "the pleasures of Dark Shadows are frustratingly hit-and-miss. In the end, it all collapses into a spectacularly gorgeous heap."[28] In The Washington Post, Ann Hornaday dismissed the film, awarding it just one and a half stars, explaining that "Burton's mash-up of post-'60s kitsch and modern-day knowingness strikes a chord that is less self-aware than fatally self-satisfied. Dark Shadows doesn't know where it wants to dwell: in the eerie, subversive penumbra suggested by its title or in playful, go-for-broke camp."[29]

Richard Corliss in Time pointed out that "[Burton]'s affection is evident, and his homage sometimes acute",[30] and reasoned: "All right, so Burton has made less a revival of the old show than a hit-or-miss parody pageant,"[30] but praised the star power of the film, relenting that "attention must be paid to movie allure, in a star like Depp and his current harem. Angelique may be the only satanist among the women here, but they're all bewitching."[30] Peter Bradshaw, in the British newspaper The Guardian, weighed the film in a mixed/slightly positive write-up, giving it three stars out of five, and pointing out his feeling that "the Gothy, jokey 'darkness' of Burton's style is now beginning to look very familiar; he has built his brand to perfection in the film marketplace, and it is smarter and more distinctive than a lot of what is on offer at the multiplex, but there are no surprises. There are shadows, but they conceal nothing."[31]

Sequel

On December 7, 2011, Michelle Pfeiffer told MTV that she is hoping sequels will be made for the film.[32] On May 8, 2012, Variety reported that Warner Bros. may want to turn Dark Shadows into a movie franchise.[33] On the same day, Collider.com mentioned that the ending lends itself to a possible sequel. When Tim Burton was asked if he thought that this could be a possible start to a franchise, he replied, "No. Because of the nature of it being like a soap opera, that was the structure. It wasn't a conscious decision. First of all, it's a bit presumptuous to think that. If something works out, that's one thing, but you can't ever predict that. [The ending] had more to do with the soap opera structure of it."[34]

See also

There have been two other feature films based on the soap opera Dark Shadows:

References

  1. ^ a b c "Dark Shadows (2012)". Box Office Mojo. May 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Dates Set for Dark Shadows, Journey 2 and Rivals". ComingSoon.net. May 13, 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "News on Batman 3, Superman, Dark Shadows, and The Hobbit (December 2012!) – IMAX and Warner Bros. Sign Up to 20 Picture Deal!". Steve "Frosty" Weintraub. April 28, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Filming Begins on Tim Burton's Dark Shadows". ComingSoon.net. May 18, 2011.
  5. ^ Kit, Borys (March 28, 2011). "'Prom' Actor Thomas McDonell Joins Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's 'Dark Shadows'". The Hollywood Reporter. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Johnny Depp's true 'Dark Shadows' vampire revealed! – Exclusive First Look". Entertainment Weekly. September 22, 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ a b Richards, Olly (2011). Empire Magazine: 70. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. ^ "Dark Shadows Production Notes" (PDF). April 29, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ "Dark Shadows Movie Casts Joshua Collins". Dark Shadows News Page. July 26, 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Susanna Cappellaro". Core Talent International. April 29, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "Alice Cooper Confirms Dark Shadows Cameo". Dark Shadows News Page. July 3, 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "San Diego Comic-Con 2011: Dark Shadows Panel Highlights; Original Cast Cameos Confirmed for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows Film". Dread Central. July 23, 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Jdr Talks To Kathryn Leigh Scott, Our Q&A – Dark Shadows' Actress & Author". Johnny Depp Reads. March 2, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Fleming, Michael (July 26, 2007). "Depp lights up 'Dark Shadows'". Variety.
  15. ^ Kroll, Justin (February 2, 2011). "'Dark Shadows' ready for the light". Variety.
  16. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (January 21, 2009). "John August to pen 'Preacher' film". Variety.
  17. ^ McNary, Dave (July 15, 2010). "WB moves on Depp's 'Shadow'". Variety.
  18. ^ Radish, Christina (May 8, 2012). "Johnny Depp and Tim Burton DARK SHADOWS Interview". Collider. Retrieved May 8, 2012.
  19. ^ Mitchell, John (March 15, 2012). "Dark Shadows trailer 5 Key Scenes".
  20. ^ "Amazon.com: Dark Shadows: Original Score: Danny Elfman: Music". Amazon.com. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
  21. ^ "Amazon.com: Dark Shadows: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Various artists". Amazon.com. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
  22. ^ "Amazon.com: Soundtrack: Dark Shadows: Music". Amazon.com. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
  23. ^ "Dark Shadows — OST". JB Hi-Fi. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
  24. ^ a b "Dark Shadows". Flixster. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  25. ^ "Dark Shadows Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved May 22, 2012.
  26. ^ a b c "Dark Shadows :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". rogerebert.com, Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved May 22, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ a b "Johnny Depp Stars in Tim Burton's 'Dark Shadows' - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  28. ^ a b "Dark Shadows - Movie Reviews". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 22, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ "Critic Review for Dark Shadows: An IMAX 3D Experience on washingtonpost.com". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ a b c "Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows: Death Warmed Over". Time. Retrieved May 22, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  31. ^ "Dark Shadows – review". The Guardian. Retrieved May 22, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  32. ^ Warner, Kara (December 7, 2011). "Michelle Pfeiffer Hoping For 'Dark Shadows' Sequels". MTV.
  33. ^ McNary, Dave (May 8, 2012). "'Dark Shadows' sharp enough for franchise?". Variety.
  34. ^ Radish, Christina (May 8, 2012). "Johnny Depp and Tim Burton Talk DARK SHADOWS, Pulling from the TV Series, Deleted Scenes, a Sequel and More". Collider.
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