dan curtis' dracula

Just released on Blu-ray, Dan Curtis' Dracula features Academy Award winner Jack Palance (City Slickers, Shane, Barabbas) in the title role of the Transylvanian count. Produced and directed by Dan Curtis of Dark Shadows fame, the film adds a more romantic spin to Bram Stoker's classic tale, with Dracula obsessed with a beautiful young woman who resembles his long-lost wife. The film was written by science-fiction and horror legend Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, The Box, Trilogy of Terror), who pared down Stoker's epistolary tale to a fast-moving, but still scary 98-minute film.

The always charismatic Palance is impressive as Dracula.  ...

Jack Palance as Count Dracula

Fiona Lewis as Lucy, after she has spent some time with the Count

... Considered one of the scarier versions of the tale, even co-star Nigel Davenport seemed put off by Palance's take on Dracula, "I was pretty frightened of that gentleman, because he was so bloody tall! He was six-foot-four and, as he wanted to look like Dracula, he had three-inch lifts in his shoes, so he was like six-foot-seven ..."

Dan Curtis' Dracula, although adapted from Stoker, made some changes to the origin story that turned up in subsequent vampire films. Dracula's search for his lost love was not only similar to Curtis' anti-hero Barnabas Collins love for Josette from Dark Shadows, but was also echoed in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula and Gary Oldman's more romantic take on the Count. Coppola's Dracula also followed Curtis' version in taking Stoker's inspiration for the character, historical figure Vlad the Impaler, and making him and Dracula one and the same. With an emphasis on scares, and even (gasp) blood, it's great to re-welcome Dan Curtis' Dracula to the filmed pantheon of the infamous bloodthirsty Count.

You can read my complete review on Cinema Sentries

a life-long love of scary movies

I take my eight year old daughter to PG-13 movies from time to time, with a minimum of guilt. Most of them I check out beforehand, usually via reviews or content advisories. I have to admit I'm less concerned about any sexual entendre vs. gratuitous violence. I think a lot of the innuendo goes over a kid's head, but violent images can really scare and haunt you at any age — or worse, desensitize a person. But I also have always loved scary movies, which can get a little bloody at times, so it is definitely a balancing act on what I think she can handle. It's been especially tough lately with all of the PG-13 comic book moves, which are marketed very strongly to kids. Most of the super-hero ones I have said yes to, except the darker Batman, but luckily she wasn't too interested in that one (nor was I.)

The other day the kid asked me if we could buy Dark Shadows when it comes out on DVD. I was surprised and used my patented "We'll see," which temporarily gets me off the hook for a yes/no answer. I have to think about it. That is one of the ones we actually saw together in the theater. Apart from the over-the-top "sex" scene with Barnabas and Angelique, the romantic content was pretty tame. It is Tim Burton, after all. There were a few "bloody" scenes with vampire Barnabas chowing down on a few folks after he was set loose on humanity. The violence occurs off-screen (actually tame for Burton), but the blood-spattered Johnny Depp as Barnabas tells the tale.

 

All of this rumination takes me back to many years ago when I was a kid and first acquired a taste for scary movies, encouraged and abetted by my movie-buff father. I was eight, the same age as my daughter, and he told me I could stay up and watch Chiller Theater with him. Chiller Theater introduced its features with a shot of a six-fingered hand sinking into a steaming swamp while a deep voice intoned, "Chiiilllleerrr!" Both spooky and thrilling, especially coupled with my being allowed to stay up late and watch a movie with Dad while my brother had to go to bed.

Chiller Theater aired at 8 p.m. and we watched a lot of scary movies together, featuring wayward mummies and werewolves, but my favorites were always vampires. The one that had the most impact on me was The Return of Dracula, starring Francis Lederer as a vampire who comes to modern, late '50s California and poses as an artist, which, combined with his middle-European accent, causes all the girls to find him extremely attractive. There was something truly scary about the black and white stark unromaticized California setting, and I can still remember the final scene where Dracula gets staked in a particularly nasty way.

Another one that made an impact was The Son of Dracula, starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Count Alucard, which my eight year-old self, with a nudge from Dad, was able to work out as Dracula spelt backwards — how clever!

But I have to admit that as excited and priveleged as I felt to see these grown-up movies with my father, I was also pretty scared, especially during the scenes when the Transylvanian counts would sneak into young girls' bedrooms and bite them on the neck. Dad and I worked out a system to help me deal with the scary scenes. He had seen all of these movies before, so when a scary part would come up, he would tell me to cover my eyes and let me know when it was safe to look again. Of course Dad was more evil than Count Alucard, and would say, "O.K., You can look now," at precisely the scariest moment. What a betrayal. How frightening. How wonderful. I've been hooked on scary movies ever since.

Which brings me back to my daughter and Dark Shadows. When we went to see it at the movies I told her to cover her eyes and lean into me if anything scared her. She did, and when bloody Johnny Depp was getting cleaned up I told her it was safe to look again. I guess I'm a little less naughty than my dad. But I'm still not sure about buying the DVD. I can remember that scary, low-budget, but still classic horror film to this day. Does she really need to relive Depp as Barnabas, on disc, over and over again? Talk about de-fanging. It might be better to check out some original Dark Shadows DVDs from the library and give her a taste of the original Barnabas. Or maybe I can track down The Return of Dracula and see if Francis Lederer is as scary to this generation as he was to me then.

Related: dark (eye) shadows

dark (eye) shadows

All the girls love Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), but few love him with the maniacal fury of witch Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). Tim Burton's Dark Shadows is one of his most approachable films in a long time. It manages to incorporate many elements from the original '60s gothic soap opera — actually more than most fans of the soap may be suspecting. But the tone is pure Burton. More Goth than Gothic, and downright goofy and even creepy at times.

Barnabas does his supernatural homework

Depp's Barnabas lays out the bare bones of the plot (from a script by Pride And Prejudice And Zombies' Seth Grahame-Smith) in an opening voice-over:

"My name is Barnabas Collins. Two centuries ago, I made Collinwood my home... until a jealous witch cursed me, condemning me to the shadows, for all time."

The rest of the film (mostly) follows the romantic problems of Barnabas. He has a fling with the beautiful young witch Angelique (Eva Green), who is obsessed with him, but he doesn't love her, and is soon head-over-heels in love with the sweet Josette (Bella Heathcote). This only spells disaster for all, as Angelique eliminates both Josette and Barnabas's parents and curses her ex-lover to eternal life as a vampire. Cue the trippy music and it's 1972 where a local excavation uncovers Barnabas's coffin. After a little mass-murder and midnight snack, the vampire heads for his beloved family seat, Collinwood, like a supernatural homing pigeon.

Burton has always been more interested in visuals than story, and Dark Shadows reflects this. Where the director falters is in his characterization. He gives Depp free reign, of course, and the actor throws himself wholeheartedly into the role of a man whose passions and sense of family can survive across the centuries. The only consistent plotline is Angelique's revenge, which Green embraces with enthusiastic fury. When Depp and Green are together onscreen sparks fly. But Barnabas's interactions with all the other cast members, especially Maggie Evans/Victoria Winters (also played by Bella Heathcote), are rather pale. Characters are introduced, and then as quickly dropped, as Burton heads onto the next set piece. Is Victoria a reincarnation of Josette? The audience is never told. Maybe Burton forgot. Helena Bonham Carter tries to inject the drunken Dr. Julia Hoffman with some verve, and there is a scene between Depp and Michelle Pfieffer, as Collins matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, that manages, with a nod and a wink to the original series, to capture the over-the-top melodramatic dialogue that made it such a cult classic. Chloe Grace Moretz, who has been wonderful in other films (Let Me In, Hugo) is dreadful here as written — one-note and dull as Elizabeth's bored and angtsy teenager Carolyn Stoddard. A last-minute plot twist almost excuses her character's bad behavior, but feels tacked on and too little, too late.

Burton has always been faithful to his favorite actors, and horror fans will be thrilled to see Christopher Lee, no stranger to vampire films himself, in a cameo midway through the film. Fans of the original Dark Shadows series will also be happy to see some of its stars briefly featured in a party scene, but it went by quickly and I was disappointed to not be able to spot original Barnabas Jonathan Frid. I did see Lara Parker (original Angelique), David Selby (Quentin) and Kathryn Leigh Scott (original Josette/Maggie) in the background.

The sets, costumes, and Michelle Pfieffer look fabulous

Where Burton does excel, as always, are the visuals. The look of the film is fantastic, managing to both spoof and evoke the '70s while still keeping everything believable. The town of Collinsport and the fabulously run-down Collinwood mansion, with its secret rooms and passages, look both wonderful and real. When seen in IMAX, the talents of production designer Rick Heinrichs, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, and costume designer Colleen Atwood, are especially noticeable. Dark Shadows is far from a masterpiece like Burton's brilliant Ed Wood, but it is enjoyable, and happily has more in common with another one of his better films, Beetlejuice, than the more recent and truly awful Alice in Wonderland.

The one area where the look of the film leaves me cold is the make-up. The pancake is laid on so thick on Depp that he at times seems more clown than vampire, which begs the question why some of the Collins family seem surprised when his true identity is revealed. Did they really think he was human? Thick white make-up is another Burton trademark. The guy likes what he likes and he's not likely to change his tastes at this late date. Maybe he has never gotten over Nicholson's Joker ...

The darkest shadows are on Johnny Depp's cheeks and eyes

Dark Shadows is part comedy, part romance, part horror film. Its humor is more along the line of chuckles than belly laughs, and Burton doesn't whitewash its darker roots. Hero Barnabas is a monster, and when his thirst hits him, he tends to slaughter on a grand scale. As much as he yearns for romance, it's hard not to agree with Angelique that the two might be better suited together than Barnabas and the prim Victoria. The film is strange and a little disjointed, and kind of loses it when the CGI takes over near the end, but it also doesn't look like anything else out in theaters at the moment. That is always what Burton has going for him. He may be just doing variations on a theme, but it's his theme, and he's sticking to it, with Depp and Bonham Carter happily along for the ride.

First start with white pancake, then add lots of dark shadows around the eyes — CW from top: Christopher Walken in Sleepy Hollow, Depp in Alice in Wonderland, Jack Nicholson in Batman, Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice, Lisa Marie in Mars Attacks!, Danny Devito and Michelle Pfieffer in Batman Returns.

r.i.p. jonathan frid

Like many, I used to rush home from school to see Dark Shadows. It was my mom's favorite show. She had a huge crush on the vampire Jonathan Collins, played by Jonathan Frid. I didn't quite get that — too young, I guess. But I did find him fascinating — and frightening. I really liked the pretty witch, Angelique, too. Barnabas Collins, as opposed to more recent, sparkly versions, was a scary vampire, and I loved scary movies.

It's sadly ironic that Frid has passed away before Tim Burton's and Johnny Depp's adaptation of Dark Shadows hits the theaters next month. Frid actually makes a cameo appearance in the film. Although the new film seems to be taking a much more comedic approach than the original series (probably a good thing, as Burton is better at comedy than tragedy), Depp has come by his love of Barnabas honestly. He was also a childhood fan.

A classically trained actor, Canadian-born Frid brought a sense of gravitas to Dark Shadows. Although he had a long career in the theater both before and after his time on the gothic soap opera, he will forever be associated with Barnabas Collins. R.I.P. Jonathan, you will be missed.

this might actually not ... suck

The first trailer for Tim Burton's and Johnny Depp's Dark Shadows premiered on Ellen on Thursday. I have to admit that I have been dreading another Burton/Depp film, as the last few things they have done together were extremely disappointing. But if the flavor of the wacky trailer is true to the finished film, this may be more of an Ed Wood than an Alice in Wonderland, which would be wonderful. Here's hoping ...