The Dark Shadows Movie: another bad TV show inspired movie?
By burrito88
@burrito88 (2774)
United States
May 5, 2012 1:20am CST
I remember years ago when the TV show Dark Shadows came on. I was a daytime soap opera. Since it dealt with a vampire it would seem that it was before it's time, however, Barnabas Collins was not one of the original characters. The original show was a Gothic drama which set it apart from the usual soap operas of the time. The show ran for several years and there were over 1200 episodes and two movies made.
So far, watching the trailers for the new movie, it seems to be deviating from the original concept to be more comedic or campy. The snippets they show of Johnny Depp as Barnabas make me think its more like Capt. Jack Sparrow as a vampire. It seems like its going to be another trashy remake rather like the Starsky and Hutch movie. The movie will probably do big business because of Depp and Tim Burton but it doesn't seem like a fitting tribute to the show that went off the air 40 years ago. Its a shame because many young people who never saw the show won't know the difference.
3 responses
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
5 May 12
The original series was a daily half hour afternoon show that ran 5 times a week. As I said there were over 1200 episodes. At one point it was almost completely rerun on the SyFy channel here in the US. The original starred Jonathon Frid. There was a short lived remake that starred Ben Cross as an hour long evening show. That stuck more to the original concept but I think it had trouble getting viewers because it was interrupted by coverage of the first Gulf war.
