Dark Shadows

Saw Dark Shadows, the Tim Burton revival of a late 60s vampire soap opera (?) that I'd never heard of before.  It's the usual gothical thing: big spooky houses full of trap doors and secret passages, vampires and magic juxtaposed with modern ticky-tack, Johnny Depp.  The film predates the strange retro-camp-horror craze of 2016 (see and also) and is set in the 70s, rather than the 80s, but it still more or less works.

The film follows Barnabas Collins, a vampire, who escapes from his coffin in 1970s America.  He sets about trying to revive his family fortunes which have been devastated by time and by an evil witch who first cursed Barnabas with vampirism.  The film is mostly a fish-out-of-water comedy about Barnabas navigating modern times.  It reminds me strongly of of a more sympathetic Mr Burns, marveling at female doctors and watching a lava lamp with loathing fascination.  I was wondering how far they'd take this.  I haven't studied it, but I'm pretty sure it was more acceptable to hit people in the olden times (just look at how many dames get slapped in noir films and Victorian literature is full of masters cuffing servants.)  Things do get kind of physical in a climactic fight, but Tim wants us to like Barnabas too much to have him really butt up against modern mores.

Anyway, the film is a little vague to me.  It's interesting but not very pointed.  Like a lot of Burton films, it's kind of an aesthetic romp, reveling in dramatic blacks and deep primary colors (red features heavily!) There's no broader commentary which is sort of disappointing since, in these modern times, the "witches" of New England are more figures of pathos and reclamation than terror.  At the end of the film though, the witch-lady's skin crackles like porcelain and I really liked that.

The film is okay.  It reminded me a lot of the Addams Family and Crimson Peak.  The 70s aesthetic strongly evoked Wes Anderson, because he owns that muted, tidy look currently.  I was a little annoyed at how every damn woman wanted Barnabas's chalky body - like I say, he's more Mr Burns than Edward Cullen - but I guess that's Burton for you: he knows his audience (and their fantasies.)  It's a throwback film, more muted than Beetlejuice, but with the same manic whimsy and visual splendor.