Dark Shadows Frenzy

With less than two weeks before the premiere, publicity for Tim Burton‘s version of Dark Shadows is reaching a fever pitch.  Case in point–the website Deviantart.com is having a contest.  Create a portrait of Barnabas Collins, with Tim Burton himself as the judge and literally thousands of dollars of prizes awaiting the winner!  Well over two hundred entries have been submitted!  One shows Johnny Depp as Barnabas reclining nude on a bearskin rug!

A series of teasers, trailers and t.v. spots have been flooding the airwaves.  Interviews with the stars and crew keep popping up in nearly all media.  Interestingly, despite the tone of most trailers, Burton himself said he never saw the story as a comedy at all.

Despite this, the sheer number of funny lines in various spots cannot be denied.  Many involve the fact that Barnabas remains a man out of his own time.  His frightened fury at a television.  The wildly awkward way he tries to communicate with Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz).   Knowing only the performer’s name, the way he looks at Alice Cooper and proclaims “Ugliest woman I have ever seen.”  But others include how other characters react to this bizarre situation.  My personal favorite is this exchange between Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) and Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer):

Julia:  “What were you thinking?”   Elizabeth:  “I wanted to protect the children.”  Julia:  “By letting a VAMPIRE stay in the guest bedroom?!?!”

She has a point.

Now a featurette about the making of the film is available.  Among other things, it reveals our first glimpse of Sir Christopher Lee in the new film.  Also a confirmation that the plot includes an effort to try and cure vampirism.

What do you think?  Are you more or less excited as this movie gets closer?

By david

David MacDowell Blue blogs at Night Tinted Glasses.  He graduated from the National Shakespeare Conservatory and is the author of The Annotated Carmilla. and Your Vampire Story (And How to Write It) as well as a theatrical adaptation of Carmilla.

5 comments

  1. I’m excited about the movie. I think it will be a great vampire spoof and really pay homage to the show. I think it will be great, and I love anything by Tim Burton.

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  4. Not to make a bad impression of seeming too immature or anything, but all I can currently say about the awesome-ness that a mix of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Vampires is: WAAAAAAAANT!!!!!!! ;_______; (Well, what? You can’t be 100% serious at all times… ._.;)

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