Dark Shadows

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Last week my husband and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary.  On my sister's day off, she stayed home with Elliott so my husband and I could go out and see a movie that we wouldn't take Elliott to.  My husband chose Dark Shadows.  Since we were both born in the 80s, we had never seen the original soap opera, but my husband loves Tim Burton, so that was reason enough to see it.

 Dark Shadows is rated PG-13.  We allow our six year old to see some PG-13 movies, but this is one that he won't be seeing anytime in the near future.  It stars Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, and Eva Green.

This review contains spoilers!

It starts out with the story of Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), and how he scorns Angelique (Eva Green).  It turns out she is a witch, so she gets back at him by taking things he loves.  She then turns him into a vampire and imprisons him.

Fast forward 200 years, and Barnabas is dug up.  He goes to find his family, and decides to help them rebuild their failing business. He finds out that the biggest competitor is none other than Angelique.  They fight a lot and she tries to destroy his business before it's all over.

This was pretty typical for a Tim Burton film.  It was dark and funny.  Johnny Depp did a great job as the odd vampire.  Eva Green did a pretty good job as the witch as well.  The other characters were less important, but were all pretty good as well.

The movie theater wasn't crowded when we saw it (it was a weekday evening, though), but the crowd seemed pretty involved in the movie anyway.  There were several laughs, and a few gasps around us throughout the movie.  And the talk after the movie, indicated that it was pretty well liked by most in attendance.

Overall, I think it would be worth the price of admission at a matinee, but I'm not positive it would be for a prime time viewing, especially if you are going with other people.  My husband enjoyed it more than I did, but I don't think we will be buying it when it comes out.