Dark Shadows (2012)
Where to Watch
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Tim Burton originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
- The original script for Dark Shadows was written over a decade before production finally began in 2012.
Dark Shadows is a 2012 American horror comedy directed by Tim Burton, based on the 1966-1971 gothic television soap opera created by Dan Curtis. Johnny Depp stars as Barnabas Collins, an 18th-century Maine aristocrat who was cursed into vampirism by the vindictive witch Angelique Bouchard, played by Eva Green, after he spurned her love, and then buried alive in a chained coffin for nearly 200 years. Unearthed by construction workers in 1972, Barnabas must adapt to the bewildering modern world of lava lamps, hippie culture, and Alice Cooper while attempting to restore his crumbling family estate, Collinwood Manor, and protect his dysfunctional descendants from the vengeful Angelique, who has spent two centuries building a business empire in the Collins family's fishing town.
Eva Green's scene-stealing performance as the vengeful, sexually voracious Angelique β a woman scorned across centuries whose obsessive love has curdled into destructive rage β was the film's most compelling and entertaining element, bringing genuine menace and dark comedy in equal measure. Tim Burton's recreation of the early 1970s aesthetic was visually rich, and the fish-out-of-water comedy of an 18th-century vampire confronting television, automobiles, and McDonald's provided the film's lightest moments. The supporting cast included Michelle Pfeiffer as the matriarch, Helena Bonham Carter as a psychiatrist, and ChloΓ« Grace Moretz as a sullen teenager.
Dark Shadows earned $245 million worldwide on a $150 million budget.
