Dark characters, dark
mis-en-scene and extremely dark humour; welcome to the world of Dark Shadows, where actor Johnny Depp
doesn’t fail to scare you with his hideous look and makes you laugh with his
comic touch, simultaneously.
Dark
Shadows is an American comedy horror
film based on the 1966–1971 gothic horror soap opera of
the same name.
The film is directed by Tim Burton and
stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a
vampire who escapes 200 years of confinement in an underground coffin. Being
born in a rich and powerful family that owns a large fishing business, Barnabas
gets into a misfortune when he breaks the heart of a witch, Angelique
Bouchard (Eva Green), leaving her no choice but to take revenge by killing his
family and his lover Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote), and spelling an
indestructible curse on all the members of the Collins family.
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| With good art direction and costume design, Dark Shadows earns success in theaters. |
Even though the set-up of
the film is dark, the lighting is absolutely perfect, especially in the night
scenes. Art direction and set design are marvelous and the costume design, by
Colleen Atwood, who won the Academy Award for Costume Design for Alice in
Wonderland in 2010, says it all. The visual appeal of the film is what
attracts the audience as the colors perfectly outstand in the film, leaving no
sign of amateurism. The camera angles have been well-experimented with as well
and the dialogues, on the other hand, are extraordinary, as the combination of
horror, humour and sarcasm is rare to see.
Dark Shadows is an epic fairy tale, Tim
Burton style, with occasional innocent moraines and flamboyant visuals
contrasting depressing gray scale scenes. So if your inner core happens to be a
morbid yet happy child who has strange cravings for visual stimulation, Dark
Shadows is a good couple of hours off, from reality.
By Maria Hussain
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