All I can say right now is that shot of Barnabas is really making me impatient for the release of HODS--I'm itching to see Don in his blue jammies in Blu-ray!   

That's why it amazes me that folk over 49 were kept out of the advanced screenings.

Yes, it's really ironic that the marketing is focusing on the 18-49 age range, while it looks like a lot of the humor is really just going to go over their heads.  It's us old fogeys who are going to get most of the jokes and laugh loudest at the horror freak show (i.e., the 1970s style and culture).   

I was referring to his general approach to making the film.  Because of HBC, he decided to not show the original to anyone else.  And I inferred that since Michelle Pfeiffer was the one person who religiously watched the show on set, and he said she was a great example for the other cast members, that he basically went about making the "feel" of the film similar to the original via a roundabout route.

Ah, now I see.  But I think TB is a strong enough director that he will get the performances he wants regardless of how it's done.  Of anything we've seen so far, I think it's actually JD's performance that veers the furthest from the DS tone that we'd expect--in the humorous clips--and yet this whole project was his baby to begin with, born out of his love of DS since childhood.

I'm really looking forward to HBC's performance as Julia.  She looks like she's going to be a real hoot, just as fabulous as Grayson Hall, but in her own way.

The May issue of Empire is going to make more fans upset with HBC, but will make fans love Michelle Pfeiffer even more.  And it's also going to help shed some light on comments by Tim Burton, who I now believe really does love the show.  I'm just going to say that HBC seems to have influenced some of his decisions a little bit more than than I'd care for her to, and this is by his own admission.

CB, could you elaborate?  I read the article online, and didn't pick up on anything that touched on Helena's influence on the project.  Is there more in the print version?  Or maybe there's a page in the online version that I missed?

Though why wouldn't I be surprised if they don't even want to believe that it's the real score?

Come now, can't you tell that the tracks on the Watertower site are just part of a big conspiracy?   

Must be the Cobert influence that saves it from the usual phoned-in quality of other Elfman scores.

Ooh, meeOWW!!! 

OMG!  The soundtrack is UNREAL!  I HEAR COBERT!

Again, the titles give away plot stuff, but it's worth it to hear the music...

I am just totally amazed at how much of Cobert's style was incorporated in Elfman's score.  I had been fearing that we'd end up with something light and fanciful, but this is dark!  I love it!     The later stuff in the score seems to sound almost like a blend of Cobert and John Williams, if you can imagine such a combination.  Hearing this music really gives me much more hope for how the finished movie will turn out.  Tim Burton had been saying all along that he wanted to get the tone of the film right.  From the trailers we saw that the production design was right, and now with the score we see that musically they really nailed it.  I think the comedy we see in the trailer will play very differently in the context of the full scenes, and with Elfman's score.  The images from the trailer, and Elfman's music, suggest to me something in between the drama of the original and 1991 series, and the horrific intensity of HODS.  It's not light and fluffy, but dark and heavy.  (That brings me to my big problem with the marketing of the movie:  unless the movie turns out to be very different from what I'm thinking it's going to be like, the poster image is just way off.  The riot of color is so at odds with the title "Dark Shadows"...)

It's interesting that we don't hear the DS main title theme in any of these clips.  But these sound like only snippets (and maybe not even all of the tracks), so who knows.  It's possible that the old theme will be used over the end credits.  Even if it isn't, I won't be disappointed, since to me it's the dramatic scoring that is "Dark Shadows" to me, not the main title theme.  However, I am disappointed that I didn't hear anything from my absolute favorite DS music, Jekyll and Hyde "Cue #2".  That was Dan Curtis' favorite piece, and something he wanted Cobert to include in all of his scores.  (It's called "A Darkness at Collinwood" on the first DS soundtrack album.  That piece, more than anything else, says "Dark Shadows" to me.)

CB, where did you happen to find a track listing?  I've been searching around, and can't find one.