“DARK SHADOWS” Movie Review. HUSH, sweet Babe. You LIKE this one or NOT?

“DARK SHADOWS” PRESS PREVIEW

If you relish a dash of Gothic Art embroiled within a wacky retelling of a so-called 1970s tale of the macabre, DARK SHADOWS should fire your imagination.

This is the eighth collaboration of TIM BURTON, visionary director with Gothic offbeat sensibilities and JOHNNY DEPP, an actor known for his non-conforming aesthetic tastes – but it’s by no means their best effort.

But JOHNNY DEPP and TIM BURTON must have a certain kind of divine friendship where trust is concerned to be able to collaborate again …. and again.

This latest offering is a spoof about an arrogant playboy vampire who’s been buried alive for two centuries as a punishment for an unrequited love and his philandering ways.

BEHOLD a stunning parade of sweet damsels here (Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloe Grace Moretz, Helena Boham Carter, Bella Heathcote and Eva Green) who ignite the screen, hissing, snarling and fighting for every second of screen time each time any of them appears.

Now about the plot line:

Barnabas (Johnny Depp) is the master of Collinwood Manor. He is handsome, powerful and extremely sexual …until he makes the vital mistake of bedding and breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green).

 Angelique is a witch and dooms him to a fate worse than death by transforming him into a vampire, and then deliciously burying him alive.

Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his grave and emerges into the modern world of 1972.

He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate is no longer what it was.

The new members of the Collins family each harbors their own dark secrets.

Is the film any good?

Yes, if you don’t go on digging dirt for whatever it’s worth.

The characters are fabricated after the 1970s American gothic soap opera or what you’d call a camp classic.

It’s absolute gloom as each lead character puts forward his or her melodramatic performance.

The dialogue is spiced with mirth and wit in a bid to incite light hearted laughter to dispel the shadows of despair.

The cinematography is lavish, the visual effects are spectacular and the atmospheric interiors are darkishly desolate.

Enough said.

It’d be best you exercise objectivity if you wish to appreciate this movie.