This latest trailer (for TV) certainly does give a different, darker perspective of the movie's approach. While it's obvious from the original theatrical one that there will be humor (and, perhaps, a great deal of it, but none of it I, at least, find offensive but realistic), it appears that there will be a more gothic, horror-prone atmosphere. I hope that tries to soothe those who think Depp/Burton have taken our beloved DS and turned it into a big-budget Weekend at Bernie's. I am so looking forward to this movie. I've got at least a dozen friends, only one of whom was a DS fan, all excited and planning a DS-film-going party and outing. We want to make an all-day affair of it and are trying to figure out what we want to do (go out to eat? - have a DS BBQ at one of our homes? - maybe watch my video of HoDS? - watch episodes on youtube? - specialty drinks?). A friend of mine, one of my best friends ever, absolutely loathed DS and would make fun of me for being a fanatic. Now he can't get enough of looking up every youtube or other on-line video, asking me lots of questions, etc., all because he saw the original theatrical trailer when he taped Ellen's show at my request. From my experiences, the original trailer, which many films have villified (and thus villified the film), is now creating a new fan base who want to know about the original. And the movie isn't even out yet - this is just from the trailer. The other night, I brought over my Best Scenes From DS videos to a couple of my friends' house and they watched them. If I had shown them pre-trailer, they would've stilled rolled their eyes. This time they sat in silence, mesmerized. When they saw the clip of my favorite scene ever - when Judith reads Grandmamama's will to her stunned sibblings and watching their reactions - my best friend who use to loathe DS could only say: "That's brilliant." And all of this because of the first trailer.
Maybe what Depp/Burton did will be brilliant. I know I can't say that yet (as those who are mortified can't say all this has proven to be a original DS disaster), but we'll see. I still love, love, love the scene where Barnabas goes bonkers over watching a TV broadcast of the Carpenters singing I'm On Top of the World and his reaction. I would've loved to have seen a scene of him doing that in the original (maybe dealing with Bewitched or The Munsters [imagine his reaction to Grandpa]), or maybe a scene of having him react to Willie showing him how to use a zipper on his Robert Hall suit he donned when he decided it was time to introduce himself to the family as "a cousin from England." "What demonic, magical machinization is this?" Really, is that any different from the '91 series when Abigail reacted to the instructions for cleaning Victoria's dress - "Machine wash; tumble dry?" As much as I found the '91 remake lacking from the original, having them react to the few 20th century things Vicki possessed were not only comical, but comically true. It made more things far more realistic even when humor was used.
Gerard