Friday, May 11, 2012

Dark Shadows

Straddling the line between the old and the new is director Tim Burton's Dark Shadows with an all-star cast, led by Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter.

Based on the popular TV cult classic of the late 1960's and early 70’s, the part gothic horror, part comedy-romance-melodrama film is re-imagined by Tim Burton in this eight's remarkable cinematic partnership with actor-producer Johnny Depp.

In 1750's colonial Maine, the aristocrat Barnabas Collins is cursed as a vampire and into darkness. Two hundred years later, he is accidentally freed from his tomb and into a bizarre new world, 1972. Collins returns to his Collinwood Manor where he meets his family's dysfunctional descendants led by family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer). While trying to restore his family name to its old glory, he raises the suspicion of live-in psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) who tries to dig-up the reason for Barnabas' odd and anachronistic behavior.

This cult favorite by screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith doesn't spear any blood. Well-fitting the melodrama as well as Bruno Delbonnel's beautiful cinematography is production designer Rick Heinrichs’ gothic mansion. However, it is Johnny Depp's off beat and alluring portrayal that clutches fans as well as newcomers.

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