If you like comedic, gothic horror movies, then Dark Shadows is for you. It stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard, and Alice Cooper as himself (Or as Johnny Depp says ” The ugliest woman I have ever seen.”) .
Dark Shadows starts in 1752 when young Barnabas Collins and his family set sail to America. Two decades later, Barnabas has the town of Collinsport, Maine in his grasp. He lives in the giant Collinswood Manor. He falls in live with a girl named Josette. A jealous witch who loves Barnabas gets revenge by cursing him to be a vampire and burying him alive. 200 years later (1972), he is excavated and finds his way to Collinswood and the manor. He meets the remaining dysfunctional members of the Collins family. He has to help to bring back the family business to it’s old success.
Dark Shadows is a comedic, gothic horror movie. It is funny in places, very different and strange in most places and has some horror scenes (Barnabas goes on several vampire feeding rampages). The horror scenes are pretty over the top and are more funny than they are scary or gory. Since Barnabas does not know anything about 1972, a lot of the comedy comes from him learning about the new time period and trying to fit in.
Dark Shadows is rated PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking. Since there is some blood and some sexual content, I would not recommend this movie for kids under 11.
Think of this movie as Pirates of the Caribbean meets Twilight without the heavy duty romance. I give Dark Shadows a B+.
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