Remembering Dark Shadows, Tim Burton’s Film Starring Johnny Depp

With a PG-13 rating that at times veers precariously close to R-rated territory and, at others, betrays a more wholesome kid-movie aura, there’s something in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows (showing all month long on SYFY) for just about everybody — but most of all, for the irreverent kid who’s still hiding out inside most grown-ups. 

In Burton’s vast film catalog, it kind of makes sense. Arriving in May of 2012, Dark Shadows fell smack in between 2011’s Alice in Wonderland and late 2012’s Frankenweenie, and despite its dark and decrepit vampire subject matter, there’s a blithe and youthful buoyancy that suffuses Dark Shadows and its freewheeling, feature-length film reimagining of the horror comedy’s 1970s TV series namesake.

Dark Shadows: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s horror comedy time warp

Frequent Burton collaborator Johnny Depp leads Dark Shadows as the stilted and stoic Barnabas Collins, an 18th-Century relic of Europe’s old world, whose new life in America takes a supernaturally bad turn toward the eternal. He has jilted lover Angelique (Eva Green) to thank for that, after Angelique shows her witchy side and turns him into a vampire once Barnabas dedicates his heart to Josette (Bella Heathcote) — his kinder, sweeter 1700s soul mate.

Fast forward 200 years or so, and Barnabas breaks free of his time-capsule coffin only to find the sprawling Collins estate he left behind in a state of dingy, dirty, 1970s-backdropped chaos. His descendants are barely clinging to what’s left of the family legacy, populating the creaky Collinwood Mansion with a skeleton crew of mother Elizabeth (Michelle Pfeiffer), her deadbeat brother (Jonny Lee Miller), a defiant daughter named Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz), a cute kid named David (Gully McGrath), and an eccentric slacker of a groundskeeper named Willie (Jackie Earle Haley). 

Barnabas’ return to the mansion in its 1970s state of decay meets with a brief but easily-defeated skepticism from Elizabeth and the rest of the fam, especially after Depp’s porcelain-skinned vampire starts sharing the kind of ancient family secrets that only a true-blue Collins could possibly know. More disruptive — at least to Barnabas — is the oddly well-timed arrival of a lovely governess named Victoria (also played by Heathcote),  who bears a striking resemblance to the long-dead Josette, whose love Angelique stole from him a full two centuries ago. 

All of that is just the story setup for Burton’s Dark Shadows characters to start showcasing their oddball quirks, especially the rebellious Carolyn (who’s obsessed with the era’s stoner rock) and — surprise! — the still-breathing Angelique, who after 200 years persists in finding witchy ways to manipulate the dwindling wealth of the Collins estate to satisfy her every lascivious whim. Getting both Barnabas and a Josette look-alike back under her thumb all in one fell swoop instantly activates her worst witches’ instincts, and Angelique immediately hatches a plan to either conquer Barnabas’ heart once and for all — or else epically ruin his life all over again. 

Half the fun of Dark Shadows is watching Angelique put the extended Collins squad through a gauntlet of ridiculously slapstick horror obstacles. There’s an especially athletic love scene between Angelique and Barnabas that plays out more like a supernatural olympiad than a tender romantic tryst, plus a hilarious murder at Barnabas’ hands (hey, even good vampires have to feed!) that literally sucks the life out of Julia (Helena Bonham Carter), the Collins’ dissipated live-in shrink. 

Best of all, though, are the movie’s brief but killer guest appearances, each a reminder that Burton could marshal an insane posse of A-list celebrity talent around any crazy movie idea. Dark Shadows wrests tons of fun from a full-blown concert appearance from Alice Cooper (much to Barnabas’ time-warped confusion), as well as gentler, subtler sort of humor from the late Christopher Lee’s appearance as a grizzled old local fisherman. Buttressing it all is a typically Burton-esque preponderance of imaginative set design and costuming, the fruit of his recurring creative partnership with production mastermind Rick Heinrichs and costume designer Colleen Atwood. 

From Jack Sparrow to Edward Scissorhands, Depp famously owns an uncanny actor’s gift for completely inhabiting his quirky characters, and his politely refined vampire Barnabas gives him plenty of fish-out-of-water comedic material to work with. Depp reportedly adored the Dark Shadows television series when he was a kid himself, and pushed for the film treatment eventually to see the light of day, convincing Burton to sign on for the duo’s eighth (and most recent) movie partnership featuring Depp in a leading role and Burton as director. 

Catch Dark Shadows this month on SYFY — click here for the full schedule!