You can tell we’re getting closer to the release of Dark Shadows simply by nature of the fact that there are more and more images from the film being released. The new issue of Vanity Fair has four character images, one each of Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins (who’s looking more and more like Dracula), Eva Green as Angelique, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard and Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman.
Michelle — Hi Marty,
I like the intro to Barnabas story line. John Karlen's face as he opens the coffin is priceless. He...
Marty — Hi Michelle
After watching those B&W outside location shots yesterday I was reminded how Jonathan Frid never appeared in any of...
Michelle — Hi Marty,
Welcome. I remember your frequent posts on this site last year.
Glad I gave you a little push to re-watch...
Marty — Hi, Michelle
Used to frequent these parts last year when for the build-up and then release of the movie. I've just...
Michelle — Hi Patrick,
So glad you answered. I've been off for two days.
I've just posted on the various topics on this site...
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valjazz
March 1, 2012
YIKES!! Judging from the makeup and costumes, it looks like this movie is going to be campy as hell.
Ed Gross
March 2, 2012
This has actually been my concern for many months now. Every time someone has given an interview on the film, there’s been a tendency to comment on how “funny” it is. My instinct at this point is that if you’re a genuine fan of the original series, this movie’s approach is really going to be disappointing. However, for the modern audience — the millions of millions who have NOT been touched by Dark Shadows yet — it may be the right approach.
valjazz
March 2, 2012
Well, I hope that the movie is a success, if for know other reason than to possibly introduce a new generation to the original show on DVD.
Lon
March 3, 2012
I just don’t know what to think of Johnny Depp’s look. Jonathan Frid’s Barnabas Collins was aristocratic and quite charming. I know I should not compare the two but I was one of the kids who ran home from school when Dark Shadows was on ABC in its first incarnation. I haved loved the show for over 40+ years and cherish the memories… I should have an open mind, but Depp’s Barnabas with the fingernails is just too ridiculous . Joan Bennett’s Elizabeth Collins Stoddard was a classic beauty who was almost regal. Pfieffer does not possess these traits, the blonde hair does not work. Helena Bonham Carter’s Julia looks quirky, Grayson Hall’s Julia was so over the top. I don’t think anyone could top the great late Grayson Hall, she was Julia Hoffman. I guess I am being too judgemental. I look forward to Burton’s and Depp’s creation and just hope they do the original the justice it deserves.
Toby
March 4, 2012
Ed,
Aside from your post, I feel like I have been in a vacuum lamenting the potentially over the top campy approach to this film! I am afraid they are going to make a mockery of a show that always took itself seriously even though the production values may have fallen short. I’m seriously debating whether or not I even want to see this now. I am that disappointed in what these supposed “fans” of Dark Shadows — Depp and Burton — have done with this beloved show.
Why is it so damned hard to just do a straight-up classic horror film based on this series?! Dan Curtis managed to do it in the early 90′s with his Ben Cross revival!
Next to Prometheus, this was my most anticipated film of 2012. Now, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and, heck, even Avengers, has replaced it!
I have this feeling of dread about this movie…that it’s going to be another Land of the Lost type failure. A movie that will please neither the die-hard fans OR the general movie-going public!!
Way to go, Tim B!! And thank you in advance for ruining a great shot at really bringing this back in a serious way with the treatment it deserves…:-(
Diabolus
March 4, 2012
Way to go on the advance judgements! Without even seeing a single frame. I for one am excited to see this new interpretation. And to see Johnny Depp as Barnabas welcome Jonathan Frid into the new Collinwood. A dream come true. I can’t wait!
Ed Gross
March 4, 2012
Toby, I’m a little at a loss myself. The 1991 prime time version of DS proved that it could, indeed, flourish under a larger budget and more “professional” (i.e. actually edited) production.
At the same time, and I think this goes to Diabolus’ comment as well, I’m not really judging the new movie sight unseen. I’m basically preparing myself for the fact that it’s simply not going to be the Dark Shadows we remember, but in a lot of ways, how could it be? It’s been over 40 years since that show ended, so it’s got to change. I’m just putting myself in the mindset that this will be a reboot designed to appeal to the modern audience. My one hope — and it was the same one I had with JJ Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek – is that it will increase interest in the original series and bring it back into the public consciousness.
Bottom line is the the basic fact that Dark Shadows NEEDS this movie if the franchise is going to truly survive beyond that generation of kids (myself among them) who ran home from school every day to watch it.
Toby
March 5, 2012
Diabolus,
I’m not “rushing to judgement”. However, I am formulating an opinion based on the description of the trailers that I read — which was full of some pretty cheeseball “humor”. If Ridley Scott was directing this film, I would not believe heresay at all, but this is Tim Burton who just LOVES to put silly stuff in his films. Silly stuff of the type I was reading about. The scene with Alice Cooper was in the description and now you have the evidence that that scene exists in the photos above.
Burton is visually stylish. He is CAPABLE of making a great Dark Shadows film — I think Sleepy Hollow proves that. I’m just very very nervous after what I read because I felt from the beginning that key to Burton directing this successfully was to RESIST the urge to make this silly. Comments from Helena Bonham Carter and the trailer description tells me he decided to go silly…and campy. And again, people who think Dark Shadows was ever INTENTIONALLY campy just don’t understand what made DS work!
Sorry to sound closed-minded, but after seeing Hollywood destroy my favorite childhood Saturday Morning series — Land of the Lost — by making it campy, I’m just a wee bit sensitive about what they do with DS.
In both cases, I know very well that spectacular, serious genre films could have been made. And it will be a SHAME if BOTH are deprived of the opportunity to be great films.
I’m not going to just kiss up to this film because it has the DS name on it.
In my opinion, for DS to make a comeback, we need this to be a serious gothic-horror film…just like House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows were (as well as the 1991 revival).
Ed Gross
March 5, 2012
Diabolus, I think you have every reason to be concerned. I feel exactly the same way — I was thrilled when they announced this movie, but every single person who has discussed it — ranging from Eva Green to Helena Bonham Carter to costume designer Colleen Atwell — have all declared how “funny” this film is going to be. I also agree with you that the original series was NOT campy. It was played straight with production values that, while laughable now in many instances, were somehow terrifying during the show’s original run.
At the same time, and I know I’m repeating myself here, they are not, unfortunately, as concerned about what the DS Generation thinks as much as they are about appealing to today’s kids. As an original fan, that’s extremely frustrating to me, but they need a film that’s going to gross hundreds of millions of dollars and they’re probably convinced that “we” ain’t bringing that much cash to the box office.
Needless to say, I’ll be very curious to see the end results.
Toby
March 5, 2012
Hi Ed!
Thanks for you input — which I value. I read your books published in the 80′s so I know you understand Dark Shadows and what makes it work. I guess I’m just not sold that modern audiences wouldn’t appreciate a true gothic horror film. Maybe they wouldn’t…I don’t know. Maybe I’m giving them too much credit! LOL!!!
The original DS was limited by daytime TV production values, but yeah…the original show had PLENTY of scares! Mostly because the actors portrayed characters who BELIEVED they were in the situations they were in.
See, that’s the key! No matter how fantastic the premise, the key to US buying it is how seriously the characters take their situation. That’s one big reason the soap worked for me. Sure, it was incredible situations, but I never for a moment felt like Frid, Parker, Leigh-Scott…any of those actors…they never belittled their roles or played it like it was “silly”.
House of Dark Shadows was pretty close to the mark. I always thought if that film had had Lara Parker in it playing Angelique it would have been the perfect DS film. I was really hoping for THAT with this new film…
So, to read — as you have — that this film is “funny” is just a huge disappointment.
I guess I can only hope that the trailer descriptions are wrong and that this is closer to what I was expecting…
But, let me say to all that I was certainly not wanting to bash this film in any way. To be frank, I thought this thing was “in the can” when I read Burton and Depp were fans who grew up with the show — just like I did — and when I read they had Frid, Parker, Kathryn doing cameos. I even liked the synopsis! I thought “This is in good hands! There’s no way they can screw this up!”
Then came the new cast’s descriptions of “funny” and then the trailer descriptions. I have to say, I really felt betrayed as a fan…
Like I had been sold a bill of goods. Got the “bait and switch”…
Hope I’m wrong.
Lon
March 6, 2012
As a die hard fan of the original series, I was not a fan of the revival. To me, Ben Cross just did not cut as Barnabas Collins. I watched it again 10 years later on dvd and still wasn’t convinced. Toby, I really respect your opinions on the upcoming movie as I do yours Ed. Maybe we are all jumping to conclusions, but honestly I don’t think so. The story is being changed, I think the input of Joshua Collins chaining his son inside a coffin for two centuries, showing that he had heart was really touching. Who knew centuries later, Willie Loomis would discover him and all hell would break loose in the beginning. We had empathy for Jonathan Frid’s struggles as a vampire and he became a childhood hero for so many. Here we have Barnabas’ tomb discovered by construction workers, buried alive by Angelique which makes no sense.
As stated, the actors in the original series brought the characters to life and we believed it. Blunders and bloopers galore, that is what made Dark Shadows enduring to its fans. In the original series, Barnabas blended in with his family, no garish makeup or fingernails… Barnabas looked like the average man except for one thing, as Dr. Lang said it “His affliction”… To be continued.
Toby
March 6, 2012
Hi Lon — and thanks! Well, I agree on Cross. I didn’t really care for him either, but then again whoever would follow Frid would have big shoes to fill for sure! I felt the tone of the revival series was right though. Some things could have been better, but as with all series — I assume, had it been give a chance, it would have gotten better as it went along.
You’re kidding?! Construction workers unearth Barnabas? I did not hear that little “nugget”. I guess Willie is one of them?
I really hate it when Hollywood changes things just for the sake of changing it. More to come as developments transpire…
Lon
March 6, 2012
Hi Toby,
As two die hard fans, it is hard be accept a new “Dark Shadows”. Let’s face it remakes don’t work. After viewing House of Dark Shadows again, the movie was good in the very beginning but it went awry 3/4′s through with Roger and Professor Stokes turning into vampires made no sense. In Night I loved when it focused in the past, those scenes were great. In the revival the casting was way off. It was hard to distinguish between the old house and Collinwood. Ben Cross always looked to tan and healthy. Did not care for actors who played Julia, Willie, the Professor and some of the others. The 1795 segment was done well. I guess we have to be patient and see what the Depp/Burton creation is going to be all about. As fars Barnabas being discovered by construction workers, that is a spoiler I read here… Hopefully it is not true.
Toby
March 6, 2012
Well, I agree with regard to the casting of the DS revival. I DID like Joanna Going though as Vickie.
As I say, the mood was right and the production values were right on target.
I think House was viewed as a one-shot film, so yeah, they had Barnabas go on a rampage and turn almost everyone into vampires. I didn’t care for how there was no mention of Angelique…it’s almost like they tried to change how Barnabas became a vampire during his explanation scene.
The historical sequences from Night were the best…and anytime Angelique (Lara Parker, my first celebrity crush) was on the screen.
Leticia
March 9, 2012
If anything, “the first Barnabas Collins” was a fastidious gentleman. The Count Orlok nails and red lipstick detract from what could be a more haunting image of Barnabas, which we will see in subsequent images. All points made, pro and con, regarding this and past remakes of “Dark Shadows”, have great merit with me, as they mirror my own sentiments at various times. While there are, and have been, different approaches to this franchise, the one key element overriding any talk of “camp” and “funny” should be the fact that Barnabas Collins was, above all else, a complex and tragic figure. Mr. Frid’s intelligent, serious-minded portrayal was what has allowed the character to remain lodged within our memories. Not only was his Barnabas a striking, physically imposing figure, but he was one imbued with a nature which alternated between the sweet and the morosely chilling as he strove to retrieve the vestiges of a past life, and end the damnation of his eternal loneliness. To paraphrase Barnabas’ statement to Victoria Winters at The Old House: “Nothing that was funny ever happened here.” He meant those words with every fiber of his being. Most important will be the voice of Barnabas; his should quietly charming yet, authoritative, not shrill or affected. The “man-out-of-time” emphasis of Burton, Depp, et al, will work only if tempered by restraint; something that, unfortunately, could be missing in this latest attempt. Another cause for alarm is that the muddling of past vampire characters within Barnabas Collins will debase what was once unique and eloquent about him. It is one thing to want to pay homage to all things vampiric and quite another to impress upon long-time fans and newcomers, alike, that this will be the ultimate interpretation of Barnabas. To do so at the expense of, and without considering the individual qualities which comprised Barnabas, indelibly imprinted onto that character by the formidable talent of the initial actor, Mr. Frid, will be mistakes not readily forgiven.