Warner Brothers

PG 13 113 min

It seems the list of old TV shows waiting to be remade as full length motion pictures is limitless. DARK SHADOWS is somewhat out of the ordinary for a few reasons.

First is that the legendary seventy's gothic soap opera drew its success mainly from young girls who rushed home after school to watch it. So it’s familiar to a small segment of viewers some 40 odd years later.

Second this particular series hasn't seemed to enjoy the success in reruns that some other sixty's and seventy's icons have. Since the original series was a serial there was one long and complicated story line which never really seems to end, until possibly the final episode. Along that long and winding road there were examples of just about every stock horror character imaginable. Werewolves, witches, ghosts, zombies, mad doctors and of course every teenage girl's favorite: vampires.

Johnny Depp reprises Jonathan Frid’s famous undead Barnabas Collins here in the big screen version. The setup is much like the original series. Barnabas has spurned the affections of a witch who curses him to eternal misery as a vampire. 200 years later and excavation crew accidentally breaks open his coffin and Barnabas walks the earth again. Upon returning to his ancestral mansion he will find to his dismay that the Collins family fishery empire has fallen on hard times. Their main competition turns out to be run by the reincarnation of the witch who cast him into darkness in the first place. Uh oh.

So what we have is two distinctly different types of movie battling for supremacy in one body.

First is the dark comedy as Barnabas is confounded by the modern world. Remember he’s never seen television cars lava lamps etc. He often recites corny 70s pop culture (Steve Miller’s The Joker lyrics, the Carpenters and Erich Segal’s Love Story) with a dramatic Shakespearian flair. They repeat that gag a few times.

The other angle here is his attempt to save the family business and put the Collins family back on top.

This film reunites two very talented people, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. In my opinion, Depp often lets the makeup man do most of his acting for him, but I will admit that he has put together a fine recreation of the character here.

Burton has a special gift for striking scenery with a macabre overtone. Unfortunately I don't think he does a great job with characters. I find most of his films interesting but lacking in charisma. DARK SHADOWS is definitely creepy cool but neither the drama nor the comedy really catches on.

The production values are certainly impressive but beyond that it's not a great deal of fun.

But it’s nice to see Michelle Pfeiffer and Alice Cooper

C+

WSS