Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

[Josette]

The film did a reasonably good job at capturing the essence of the characters.

That was my main feeling.  It was obviously very different from "our" DS and I expected that.  I couldn't really decide if I liked the way it was or not, but by the end I felt that the major characteristics of each person were there and it was sufficient to definitely consider it as being DS.

[MagnusTrask]

It was a sort of psychadelic alternate DS, with everything turned inside out and upside down, and therefore is in keeping with DS, which kept twisting into different versions of itself, by time travel and dimension-hopping.  It takes real fans to appreciate the giddy sensation of everything we know about DS turned on its head.

One thing, I was surprised to see that Carolyn didn't actually become a werewolf... it was more like she thought she was one.  She still looked like herself, didn't look at all like a wolf, and just jumped around a lot.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

How interesting - apparently the Depp/DS film was screened in Canada as part of this month's Windsor Pride potluck dinner and film screening: Worth The Drive: Top Things To Do Around Town

[MagnusTrask]

I wonder if a lot of the fans who hated the film wanted a very very serious, dignified, pricey retelling of the exact same story, a sort of validation of the life they've spent in DS fandom, something that might even be flattering to their sense of themselves as fans... an antidote to the mocking of non-fans, over the cheap special effects, onscreen bloopers, plot holes, etc..  "See!", they could say... "THIS is the essence of DS that we always saw!  We could see past technical mistakes to the heart of it!"  And non-fans would never mock it again.  A fantasy like that.

Sometimes I put some unflattering ideas out there, about fans of this or that show.  I don't want to be insulting, and I hope I'm not.  I do question, though, feeling so betrayed by an absurd take on DS, perhaps feeling betrayed by anything not dead serious and a copy of the original plotline.  I wouldn't think it would be of any value to do that all over yet again.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Apparently on May 12th you can catch:

"Beetlejuice" and "Dark Shadows." Make it a totally weird Tuesday with a spooky fun double feature. "Beetlejuice" (1988) starts at 6:30 p.m. on ABC Family, followed by "Dark Shadows" (2012) at 8:30 p.m.

Source: Tube Time: Your guide to must-see episodes, May 7-13

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Interesting. 

[Patti Feinberg]

Magnus, I completely feel it was an 'homage', and written, directed, etc for Dark Shadows fans.

We (the old timers) know where, for a couple of different reasons, 'they' had to make short-cuts.

But, I enjoy it; there are one or two partial scenes that I don't particularly care for, but, it's still nice to watch.

And, boy howdy, look at how many of the cast is CURRENTLY and, IINM, GAINFULLY employed now. (Good for them!!)

I like the way Johnny Depp will do any piece he wants to, but, doing it well, not just for a paycheck.

My kids went on Mother's Day with me & saw it. At the time, they didn't like it. But, I own 3 copies of it plus it's frequently on ABC Family. They do 'like' it now. They don't know what's 'wrong' (as in the aforementioned short-cuts for timings sake).

It was on Tues? night, and I was thinking if any studio/producer is thinking about another TV series remake, it should NOT be named DS, but, perhaps CE (this is the new 'A.D.', it stands for Common Era); but, the CE could stand for Collins Enterprises, or maybe, "There's One in Every Family".
It would be lovely if the remaining originals could on rare occassions pop in.

I don't know though; for 15 straight years, there have been multiple 'science fantasy, horror, mystery', etc. Buffy, Angel, Charmed, Bitten, True Blood, etc, etc, E T C.

Patti

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I just discovered the The New York Times also counted DS among Tuesday night's TV highlights. And what's ever better is that they gave it a nice write up:

8:30 P.M. (ABC Family) DARK SHADOWS (2012) Johnny Depp summons the spirit of the romantic vampire hero Barnabas Collins in Tim Burton’s revisiting of a soap opera from the 1960s and early ’70s. Eva Green, right, plays the maid Angelique, who paws at Barnabas; Bella Heathcote is Josette, who runs off with his heart. Three’s a crowd, and the witchy Angelique casts a spell that leaves Josette dead and Barnabas in a deep grave, where, after 200 years of entombment, he awakens in 1972. “Barnabas’s liberation does the same for Mr. Depp’s performance, and it’s delightful to watch how the actor handles the vampire’s readjustment to the world of the living, which, after he has thrown back some invigorating human Slurpees and faced down a ‘demon’ (a car), he does with both lofty entitlement and abject bewilderment,” Manohla Dargis wrote in The Times. “ ‘Dark Shadows’ 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.” She added, “And while there may not be any deeper resonance lurking in his ‘Dark Shadows’ — the show first surfaced in the middle of the Vietnam War, when real horror was playing out daily in the news — Mr. Burton’s gift for deviant beauty and laughter has its own liberating power.”

[madscntst]

Just saw this- what a sweet writeup by the NYT!  Thanks MB!

[Gothick]

A few production photos from Depp Shadows have been posted on this most excellent blog:

http://shadowsonthewallzine.blogspot.com/2015/05/behind-scenes-of-dark-shadows-2012.html

For my money, by far the nicest shot is a candid photo of a delighted Depp and Burton chatting with THE Elder Statesman of classic horror, Christopher Lee.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Very nice! Thanks Gothick for sharing the link!    (And thanks Nicky for posting them!  )

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Someone who agrees with many of us about Helena Bonham Carter's performance in the film:

Dr. Julia Hoffman in 'Dark Shadows'

[Gerard]

I agree with Carter's portrayal of Dr. Julia Hoffman.  If the OS had not been restricted by the controls of the times, this is what Julia would've been like. 

Gerard

[michael c]

like everything else about the film I don't understand why so much hostility is directed at carter's performance of julia...


I thought it was an entertaining and interesting take on the character(although the bj scene was gratuitous). the idea that these characters need to be treated with some sort of "reverence" can get a bit thick.

[Uncle Roger]

The level of venom directed at the film three years after the fact is mind boggling. There are fans who are extremely vocal about their dislike of every other incarnation of DS, from HODS to the Depp movie. If you ask them to elaborate, they will invariably tell you that it wasn't like the series. It would be extremely difficult to recreate the original at this point. Not is there any reason to. That version is still available and unlikely to go away. There should be room for all the variations. How many different interpretations of Hamlet have there been? Or Barman, for that matter.