Monday, April 22, 2013

Our "Twilight"

If you are in my demographic, perhaps you have fond memories of rushing home from elementary school to watch the Gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows." I was such a fan of the show that I was fully prepared to dislike the 2012 "Dark Shadows" movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as vampire Barnabas Collins.
Instead I really enjoyed it. The 1970s music, décor and costumes are wonderfully vivid (loved the lava lamp and the rock posters!). Johnny Depp is hilarious as a fresh-from-the-coffin vampire suddenly confronted with 1970s culture (talk about culture shock: his first glimpse of television is Karen Carpenter singing "Top of the World"), the always-dysfunctional Collins family, and his old nemesis Angelique (played by Bond Girl Eva Green, she is now a rival fishing-company owner). Don't miss the cameos by some of the original cast members; they show up for a ball that Barnabas throws (though Carolyn, the hippie daughter of the house, insists that Barnabas call it "a happening").

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