I had such hope. It was risky with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, but it’s such a classic I thought it impossible to screw up. Well, they did. Screw it up. They made it….a comedy. So not only is Hollywood devoid of new ideas, they re-hash old good ideas and ruin them. Argh. The saving grace could have been Michelle Pfeiffer, but if we use this trailer as a guide, it looks like she’s not utilized well, or very much. If the film is as bad as the trailer (and I think it will be) one word sums it up in my humble opinion: Crap.
I’m curious to see what you think. One reviewer seems to like it.
That’s not Dark Shadows???!! what was that? I watched that show with my girlfriends everyday, we would rush home from school to watch it, it was best/happiest times. Hollywood wants to ruin everything don’t they….
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT THE DARK SHADOWS!!!!!!!!!!! IS NOTHING SACRED ANYMORE??? MY HEART IS FREAKING BROKEN! HOLLYWOOD…..DAMMIT! #WAR #RAWR
Let me get this straight. They keep the story set in the early seventies to cater to nostalgia for the original series. But they turn the material 180 degrees from gothic to comedy as if fans of the original won’t notice? Perhaps they felt that they had to make the changes because vampires and gothic aren’t getting any positive audience response resulting in unprofitable failures like True Blood and Twilight. . .
Not really a surprise though. Just compare Batman Returns to The Dark Knight to see how Burton “captures” the tone of the original material.
[OT] Tammy, so glad you found Archer. I surprised myself by liking it — it is so funny! I own the DVDs.
Well, this is awful about Dark Shadows. I withheld my disappointment even though Depp was cast as Barnabas. Hollywood is incapable of making re-makes that respect the original in this climate. I had a school-boy crush on Angelique.
I liked Lost in Space as well. There was a terrible movie made in the late ’90s after it.
There’s NO DISCO in Dark Shadows!
OK, I get it. Yes, they blew it. They made it into “Love At First Bite” and they didn’t have to even change the music much since the time frame of both is circa 1970’s. They may have looked at the high drama and sometimes low production values of the original (for instance, I remember doors and walls teetering on collapse, lines flubbed) and thought it already was a comedy. NO! They needed to consult actual fans/cast of the original. I saw an interview with the actor who plays Angelique a while ago. She was talking like, oh noes, that’s not how I see her, I’m going to do blah, blah, blah, this, that, and some other BS with the character! To be fair, this looks like it could be a cute movie, ala LAFB meets The Corpse Bride, but it shouldn’t have been done to Dark Shadows. DS has a SERIOUS cult following (which includes greenlantern) and they will not take kindly to the mockery. At least wait for the great Jonathan Frid to pass away peacefully. I think Tim Burton will rue the day!
On the other hand, TDB’s movie is out and it is packed with lot’s of creepiness and chills!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2POembdArVo&feature=player_embedded
The young Frid on Merv Griffin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtoW82jcXw&feature=related
I saw a bit of this trailer on TV last night, with the sound off. Wasn’t a fan of the original show (it was before my time), but from what little I saw, it reminded me of the Addams Family movies from the 1990s, which struck me as a little odd.
And rosebud, forget disco in Dark Shadows. I don’t think there was disco in 1972, when this movie is supposedly set.
By the way, Tammy, if you’re so inclined, there is going to be a DVD release of the complete Dark Shadows series (though you’d have to give up quite a few tall non-fat lattes to pay for it).
“I don’t think there was disco in 1972”
Wrong you are, Whippersnapper! What’s more disco than “Soul Train” of 1972? You’re welcome!
And let’s not forget The Bee Gees and the movie Saturday Night Fever…ICK!
…I was there. Yes, disco in 1972. NO disco on Dark Shadows.
Reminds me why I rarely go to first run movies — because they usually suck.
I’ll take the original, complete with wobbly props and flubbed lines, over this garbage any day. Jason Alexander tweeted, “Just watched Dark Shadows trailer. Well, we’ve thrown that franchise under the bus.”
If you want to see what a Dark Shadows movie should be, get “House of Dark Shadows” on Amazon Instant Video. http://tinyurl.com/88y67g4
Yikes. Another waste of popcorn.
I remember the early Dark Shadows on TV when Kate Jackson (of Charlies Angels fame) played Daphne the ghost from a parallel time/place. This reminds me of Beetlejuice. I’ll save my money for the original tv series on DVD.
I had high hopes for the “Bewitched” movie remake as well, but they screwed that up too.
Four original Dark Shadows cast members (Jonathan Frid, David Selby, Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott) reportedly have cameos in this new film. I wonder what they think about it.
I agree with Samster1, they turned a gothic melodrama into “Beetlejuice”. Maybe they thought no one had done a “funny vampire movie” in a long time so why not. Reason they don’t do them a lot is because most of them suck. I was kind of psyched about this. Thought Burton would make another “Sleepy Hollow” kind of thing. Too bad.
Tammy, my mom would never let me watch Dark Shadows..too scary. I would go over to my neighbor’s house to watch it. Then when I was busted for that move, due to the fact that parents checked in with each other in my neighborhood; I then had to resort to watching it through the window of said neighbor from the outside. That show both drew me in and scared the crap out of me. I wasn’t known for my ability to effectively be sneaky, and had to give up altogether:(
OMG LOL! You were a real renegade! Love the story!!
I used to watch the original with my mom. Part of the allure was the cheap sets and the campy dialogue. It was bad enough to be good and lots of fun. I can’t imagine glossing it up and it still being the same. Once again Hollywood messes up something good instead of showing some creativity and making something new.
Here are five classic Barnabas clips…
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/315441/20120316/dark-shadows-depp-frid-comparison-video-trailer.htm
It doesn’t surprise me…any remake involving Johnny Depp and Tim Burton is bound to come out looking little (if anything) like the original.
The following article excerpt is from Fangoria. Many are disappointed in the trailer, but it could be a marketing decision. I hope so!
In the pages of the upcoming FANGORIA #313, you will soon see that we talked to Burton, to legendary producer Richard Zanuck and to the wonderful Burton muse and fearless actress Helena Bonham-Carter. In FANGORIA #311 we spoke to screenwriter Seth Graham Greene. All of the participants are adamant this is not a comedy. Warner Bros. wants to market it as such because, well, they don’t know how else to market a blood dripping, hyper gothic and absurdist soap opera fever dream except play up the camp.
I used to race home from high school to catch the day’s episode. While I really enjoyed the show for itself, it also had the worst production values on TV. Crew people would cough off camera or walk in front of the lens during a scene. Actors blew lines and would bumble the name of the other character(s) in the scene. Objects would crash loudly off camera. It was a hoot. And Lara Parker was a major babe.
They tried a serious reboot of DS as an evening soap in the ’90’s, but it flopped. I can see trying it as a comedy. DS is ripe for this kind of treatment. Even though Depp’s schtick is getting old, and disco notwithstanding, I’m actually looking forward to it.
I am such a big fan of “Dark Shadows”, I don’t think I will watch the movie. How ridiculous!
Since we’re on the subject of Dark Shadows.
I never got the appeal of it, but my high school girlfriends did for some reason; I didn’t care really. But it was my excuse (pretense) to go over to the girl’s house in the afternoon AFTER high school was let out, but BEFORE their parents got home.
19″ B&W TV in the Rec Room of a Split Level Home in Northern Virginia 1966.
Pass the glass bottled Coke and Lance peanuts, please.
posted 3/17 615pm Texas[Lloyd Thaxton]Time
Yep, the trailer is very bothersome. My sis & I had been looking fwd to the movie, hoping for the best, even though it’s directed by Burton. We got into the old show in reruns way back when the SciFi channel was new, or new to our cable system. Then actually, when they remade the series in prime time in the early ’90s, we really liked it, too, overall. It was true to the earlier version, if I recall correctly, and we liked the more realistic sets, etc. it didn’t seem cheap, and it wasn’t a crazy comedy. This ad makes it look like the tired old “fish out of water” storyline that’s been done a million times – we don’t need that in a Dark Shadows reboot, thank u very much!
Tim Burton sucks.