Dark Shadows

When you hear the actors from the original daytime soap talk about Dark Shadows you could be forgiven for thinking they had made a high end quality drama such as Downton Abbey. They seem to be under the misapprehension that they weren't making a daft low budget soap.

The soap itself is a great idea very badly done by the tech of the day, whereas the film is a wonderful idea done as if it’s still episodes of a long lost show. It is very staged and over the top. Great characters disappear after very little use never to be seen again. The plot is a nonsense lacking in any real drive or forward momentum.

Yet I do have a soft spot for the film. A few over used vampire tropes are played out yet again but I forgive it for those. The fact Barnabas sometimes smokes in the sunlight and sometimes doesn't is a tad iffy. The makers should make up their minds of their myth.

Johnny Depp as always is having a whale of a time over acting and bring a real star performance to a piece which in other hands could have been ropey at best.

Some Tim Burton films can sometimes come across as fun but a bit hollow and fake looking. Whereas Dark Shadows harks back to the solid world building he did in such films as Batman Returns and Edward Scissorhands.

I wonder if being a fan of the show helps in the enjoyment. I don’t think it was well known outside of the core fans so people dismissed it as yet another comedy vampire film. I've known of the soap for years and used to watch the odd episode when they were shown at ungodly hours on channels tucked away in the back of beyond. The 1990s series I knew because I bought the box set and that again was a great idea but done at a snails pace.

I think it’s about time the idea was played for real and not laughs and a TV show was attempted again. 

Great ideas like vampires never die.

Soap: 5 out of 10 blood bags.

Series: 7 out of 10 blood bags.

Film: 7 out of 10 blood bags.