Dark Shadows

"Every family has its demons."

2012 1h 53m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 7,766

ComedyFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Vampire Barnabas Collins 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 and family have fallen into ruin.

“Every family has its demons.”

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Cast

Johnny Depp
Barnabas Collins
Michelle Pfeiffer
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
Eva Green
Angelique Bouchard
Helena Bonham Carter
Dr. Julia Hoffman
Chloë Grace Moretz
Carolyn Stoddard
Bella Heathcote
Victoria Winters / Josette DuPres
Gulliver McGrath
David Collins
Jackie Earle Haley
Willie Loomis

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Seth Grahame-Smith, John August, Seth Grahame-Smith
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

$150M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 14 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CAST

Did you know

245+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Tim Burton, shot by Bruno Delbonnel. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Danny Elfman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Chris Lebenzon shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Every family has its demons.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Tim Burton directs. Bruno Delbonnel behind the camera. Danny Elfman scores. Chris Lebenzon cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$150M budget — tentpole studio territory.
2Released 14 years ago.
3245+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
4Directed by Tim Burton, shot by Bruno Delbonnel. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Danny Elfman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Chris Lebenzon shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Every family has its demons.".
9IMDB entry: tt1077368 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 18 themes, including "witch", "vampire", "imprisonment", "halloween".
11Released under 17 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel
Original score: Danny Elfman
Editing: Chris Lebenzon
Production design: Rick Heinrichs
Costume design: Colleen Atwood
Makeup / hair: Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou
VFX supervisor: Angus Bickerton
Sound: Julian Slater
Stunt coordinator: Eunice Huthart
Runtime: 113 min · 1h 53m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $150,000,000
Box office: $245,527,149
Return: 164% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Dark Shadows (2012)

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Community reviews

What people are saying

darrenhamilton142012-05-13
★ 8.5/10
Let's leave it all at the door here. I loved Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Batman. Hated Batman Returns, Alice in Wonderland, and Willy Wonka. Could care less about Nightmare before Christmas and Sweeney Todd. Okay, so I'm not a Tim Burton hater. I'm not a huge Tim Burton fan. I think in this situation, I'm as close as you get to the average movie goer. No agenda, no attachments. That being said, this film is terrible. Burton spent so much effort and time worrying about making this film Gothic and off pace, stuffing his favorite actors into the film even though half of their parts were pointless, he forgot he was making a film. It's a simple and fun idea but it feels like ego and "showiness" kept them from making the plot even make sense. We get it Tim! You are weird! Don't ruin a good performance by Depp and a fun idea for a film because you have to live up to your own Gothic standards. Grow up. So much talent is wasted on these films having the same look, cast, and feel to them. Take that talent and make something fresh! Stretch yourself just a tad out of that Hot Topic comfort zone will ya? This movie was long, boring, and ruined. All of the funny scenes were in the trailer. By the way.... wasn't this supposed to be the 70's? Other than a shot or two of trees and a hippie van it was just like the set of Sweeney Todd. The whole film felt like London in the 40's. That's bad film making whether your name is Tim Burton or not.
Dark Jedi2018-02-25
★ 7/10
I generally like Tim Burton as well as Johnny Depp. This movie was no exception. It is a dark (of course with Tim Burton) comedy with some hint of action/thriller in it. I would not really characterize it as a horror movie even though there are a vampire as well as a witch and a werewolf in it. Of course there is the romance stuff but I personally feel that is really more of a background or justification to the plot than anything else. This is not a magnificent movie but it’s a good movie. I have never seen the original series so I am not biased by that. It seems that many people that considers this to be a bad movie refers to the original show. I have read several of the critical reviews and I do not agree with most of them. I found this movie to be a nice, moderately paced, comedy in a vampire/gothic setting. The mood and the wackiness were fairly typical for a Tim Burton production. Johnny Depp was pretty much as can be expected which is a good thing if you like Johnny Depp. The return of Barnabas to his, now rather dysfunctional, family is rather funny. The ease with how Barnabas was duped and trapped again in the second half of the film was a bit annoying but then, he had been asleep for a few centuries. The entire family quite enjoyed this movie.
Wuchak2018-11-04
★ 7/10
I don’t get all the hate On coastal Maine, a Vampire named Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is released in 1972 after almost 200 years in captivity and reacquaints himself with his family’s chateau & the nearby fishing village. Michelle Pfeiffer plays the Collins matriarch, Helena Bonham Carter the in-house shrink, Eva Green a conniving witch, Bella Heathcote the reincarnation of Barnabas’ long-lost love and Chloë Grace Moretz a 15 year-old punk. Directed by Tim Burton, “Dark Shadows” (2012) isn’t far removed in tone from his “Sleepy Hollow” (1999), which also featured Depp as the protagonist, although I suppose “Shadows” throws in a little more humor. I’ve never seen the TV soap opera Dark Shadows or the subsequent two movies, so I can’t compare this movie to them. All I know is that I liked this rendition quite a bit, just as I liked the inexplicably reviled “The Lone Ranger” (2013). The October/November ambiance (i.e. Halloween-season) is to die for and Depp as Barnabas Collins maintains your interest throughout. He’s obviously a fish-out-of-water in 1972, but acclimates pretty quickly. Eva Green is perfect as the ee-vil witch and Carter is enjoyable as usual. I don’t get the hubbub over Moretz, but she’s a’right (and holds a surprise for the last act). Alice Cooper is featured in a glorified cameo. I should add that the opening credits sequence with “Nights in White Satin” is cinema at its finest. The movie runs 1 hour, 53 minutes and was shot in England (Devon, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Cornwall & Farnham) and Scotland (Mull, Argyll and Bute) with exteriors of the chateau shot at Trafalgar Castle School, Whitby, Ontario, Canada. GRADE: B