A great number of interesting things happened in 1966. Beatrix marries von Amsberg, the Houston Astrodome is built, miniskirts are in vogue, Clay beats Cooper in boxing title fights, the Roman Catholic and Angilican churches meet for the first time in 400 years, Indira Ghandi becomes Prime Minister, China's Cultural Revolution begins, Reagan becomes governor of California, cigarettes get warning labels, Florence floods, the SR-71 goes into service, Luna 9 lands on the moon, and the Australian dollar makes its debut. A gallon of gas is 32 cents and a gallon of petrol is 26 new pence. Houses cost an average 14,200 USD and 3,840 GBP.
1966 also is the year The Monkees and Star Trek go on TV. They and others, such as a serious daytime drama about an orphan on her way to research her past and while being the governess to a young boy in Maine. Her name is Victoria Winters.
Gothic and eerie with romance and intrique, foreboding. Very much middle 60's production-wise, with no real feel of when it might be time-wise in the show world, and mostly all soap opera. Dark Shadows was a soap opera, yet one that didn't follow many of the traditional rules of soap operas, even from its non-supernatural beginings. It was very much though serious drama, even being often if not usually seriously melodramatic. It went on to run 1,225 episodes (all but one of which the originals exist for), and spawned numerous other works; gothic romance (of a sort) paperbacks, comic books and feature films. It is likely the most successful gothic horor terror romance drama melodrama soap opera (with sci-fi elements like time travel and monster creation) that was ever made. Well, it's really the only one, isn't it.
Originally, with somewhat standard soap opera plots and dealings, the ratings of the show somewhat lagged until the introduction of what might seem obvious for a gothic drama sort of story, ghosts. Being on in the late afternoon, the demographic was in large part children and young people, so after ghosts, the later introduction of a vampire (one who wasn't exactly happy about the sitaution) wasn't anything surprising. Although it certainly was unique for the television era and the type of show. The creators saw the writing on the wall, one might say. Such characters were not totally new and unheard of in the world of fiction prior to this, just not in exactly that way. But it wouldn't surprise anyone much if this show was the blueprint for every angsty moody self-hating vampire (werewolf, superhuman, etc) story that's been made ever since, although there was far more to the show besides just that derived simple copy of course.
The point though is that Dark Shadows has always been serious, and not just the 5-year-running soap opera and the books and the movies and comics from it. (Aside from a jokes paperback barely related and other such things, much like many of the paperbacks and other materials that were barely related at the time.) Also serious were the revival series (MGM/NBC) in 1991, and the attempted one in 2004 (WB). Gothic horror with sentimental sympathic monsterish humans and otherwise.
Fast forward to 2012, and perhaps the two most dreaded names to any fan of how things are and how things are expected to be and look and feel when it comes to remakes -- perhaps everyone not in the business that is in any way familiar with a given original material. The names of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. And based upon both the remakes and non-remakes and other movies from either and both; what isn't to fear?
Which is probably the only scary thing about this, because "the movie with the show name" certainly isn't going to be scary or as much a remake as is it is a total reimaging in a way almost totally unlike the original. Unless the movie is not like much of their usual work and is also 100% unlike the trailer.
Back that up a bit; any of the scenes in the trailer just being in the movie tells everything one needs to know. It's their work, and it's a trailer that basically tells everyone the story of the movie and the story of what the movie will be, all on its own. Which leads to the only obvious conclusion for those who are familiar with Dark Shadows -- don't expect anything that is in any way like Dark Shadows -- because you will be disapointed if you do.
Instead, expect a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp movie. A movie with the same name as the series. A movie with so little resemblence to the orginal that it's an entirely new thing. Not a "reboot of the franchise", another entire thing sharing names and superficial traits. Which is to say, fans of either of those two people might love this movie, unless they're bigger fans of the actual work it's named after. For named after it is about all there is.
The vampire slowly rises from his coffin..... AND BUMPS HIS HEAD. ha ha ha HOW FUNNY.
Now who's to say that with so much serious material (the soap opera alone with no commericals runs 400+ hours) it wasn't time to make a spoof of something that's never been about gags. After all, some of the originals of the daytime drama are in the movie. Well, there's cameos. And it's 40 years after the show ended, plus they are actors and actresses who might not fully feel the way the viewers do. Viewers only see the product, which is comprised of the characters and the story, not real life. Viewers don't memorize lines, reherse, stand around waiting, do it as a job. It's not just one of the things the viewers have worked on; to them it's an experience that they've lived. A vicarious event they've participated in. So maybe cameos aren't much of an example, since the performers in the production might not feel the same way as the participants in the imagination do.
Why so concerned though, one might ask. After all, what's the big deal to have a joke movie filled with working 1960's-ish technology, with social values and differences between the 60's and now and the like being highlighted, rather than the moody slow interply between people in some kind of gothic setting. That powerful fans of the show, no matter how weird they are, why shouldn't they make something new, even if that new thing barely relates to any of the characters or stories other than using their names and certain specific features and abilities. We might ask "why bother" but certiainly not say they shouldn't have made it.
One problem is of course that we already have Beetlejuice.
We also already have Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman (1989), Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mars Attacks, Edward Scissorhands and others. Might as well bring in The Addams Family while we're at it. Haven't we been here already any number of times, Johnny and Tim?
At the end of the day, the original is simply being made a diving board. Once used, one that's ignobly left behind and ignored. The original as an aenemic booster model rocket to launch the movie, into a warped hallucinagenic cartoonish version of something barely sort of related to the original, kind of, almost. Vampire named this, witch named that, manion in a place. How spooky, creepy and kooky. Say it three times. Whoosh.
Like a lot of remakes, matching the original or not, sometimes it's best to just leave things alone, such as we have here. Otherwise, you might just make them FUBAR, such as we have here. Certainly some will like it, but almost as certainly, they'll have no idea what they're watching. At least when they made the original Casino Royale it had some redeeming values as a homage to the stories and the other movies, some things like the actual. It wasn't just some moronic slapstick affront to everything that came before it.
As for this movie, it's just too bad somebody didn't drive a stake through its heart, lock it in a titanium coffin, encase it in unbreakable chains, cover it in 7,000 tons of concrete, and launch it into the heart of the sun at light speed.
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