Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 41% (Critics) / 58% (Audience)
Directed By: Tim Burton
Written By: Seth Grahame-Smith and John August
Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Grace Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter and Eva Green
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Synopsis: Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet-or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. (Source)

The Good:
Depp and Green seemed to be having the time of their lives in their character’s scenes together.

The Bad:
Sadly their scenes and acting choices seemed to be for an entirely different film than this one. While Depp and Green were playing up the goofinesss and camp all the other actors were either being too straitlaced (Michelle Pfeiffer), chewing too much scenery (Chloë Grace Moretz), or not even trying at all (Bella Heathcote).
The directing style was slapdash too. I don’t have a clue as to what type of movie Burton intended on making here and I am pretty sure he was as in the dark about it himself.

The Ugly:
The non-existent chemistry between Depp and Heathcote (in both of her roles) made the supposed love story that was at the heart of this movie fail miserably.

Final Verdict: To call this movie uneven would be too kind. It was neither scary or funny and since those seemed to be the two extremes that Burton was going for it only served to make this movie a chore to sit through. The acting was equally as schizophrenic as the writing and directing. Dark Shadows is just a bad movie which is a shame because the TV show that this movie is based was good enough to make what should have been an entertaining film. D+