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The Fairviewer

The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

A Film That Should Have Stayed in the Shadows

Being a huge Johnny Depp fan and an even bigger Tim Burton fan, I stormed the theater the first chance I got to see their eighth collaboration, Dark Shadows. Dark Shadows is based off a late 60’s-early 70’s TV show about a well-to-do vampire, Barnabas Collins. Barnabas (Depp) finally manages to escape a coffin he’s been trapped in for 200 years and finds himself shielding his eyes from lava lamps in 1970 New England.

Frankly, this whole film would have been better off kept in the shadows.  Being a fan, I was incredibly disappointed with the disjointed plot, frivolous characters, and incredibly clichéd ending. It is almost as if Depp and Burton got together and said “Let’s remake Edward Scissorhands, but with a vampire,” and completely failed at it.

Trying to explain the plot of this movie is a challenge. It is basically about two competing fish businesses; one run by a vampire, the other is run by a witch. That’s it. No real depth there, just a 200 year old vampire rebuilding the family company. That’s it.

As for the characters, one thing I was very confused about was the apparent leading lady- Victoria. Victoria is meant to be Barnabas’s sole purpose to live. But she maybe has five or seven minutes of screen time. We are barely able to get to know her, and then all of a sudden they are in love. She shouldn’t even be there to be honest. Without her, the clichéd ending could be avoided.

As a true fan, I was disappointed in the movie. All their other collaborations were really great- and this one just fell flat for me.

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