Smitten ghoul in hippie shake-up in Dark Shadows

TIM Burton's big-screen adaptation of the cult late-60s television series Dark Shadows certainly delivers the goods.

Dark Shadows

TIM Burton's big-screen adaptation of the cult late-60s television series Dark Shadows certainly delivers the goods on several levels without quite rising to the heights to which it aspires. The gothic melodrama in which members of a strange family are visited by their vampire ancestor is a delicious concept and it made an enormous impact in the Dan Curtis television production.

This was especially so in the US, where it screened between 1966 and 1971 on weekday afternoons, allowing schoolchildren returning home to delay their homework to revel in the latest activities of the Collins clan.

Johnny Depp has said in interviews that he became obsessed with the character of Barnabas Collins as a child, and he now seizes the opportunity to play the cultured vampire with all the skills at his command.

After a brief prologue set in the 1760s in which the patriarch of the Collins family relocates from Liverpool to the coast of Maine to found a fishing dynasty and the town of Collinsport, the film moves forward to 1972 with the Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin pounding on the soundtrack. In this world of pot-smoking hippies, with Deliverance and Superfly screening at the Collinsport Roxy, Victoria ("Call me Vicky") Winters, played by Australian actor Bella Heathcote, arrives at Collinwood Manor as governess to young David Collins (Gully McGrath, also Australian). Interviewed by Elizabeth (Michelle Pfeiffer), the imperious matriarch of the family, Vicky reveals an interesting perspective on the world. ("Do you think the sexes should be equal?" "No. Men would become unmanageable.")

Also living in the 200-room mansion are Elizabeth's untrustworthy brother, Roger (Jonny Lee Miller); her daughter, Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz), a surly teenager; and psychiatrist Dr Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), a strangely unsettling character. The Collins family fortunes have deteriorated during the past 200 years thanks to the activities of a rival fishing company run by eternally beautiful Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). It was, as we saw in the prologue, Angelique who, having been spurned by Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) because he preferred the waif-like Josette (also Heathcote), used her powers as a witch to turn him into a vampire and had him buried in his coffin for eternity.

When road workers discover and open the coffin, Barnabas emerges and finds himself in a strange world he fails to recognise (an encounter with some pot-smoking hippies is hilarious). Arriving in Collinwood Manor, he soon sets about restoring the family fortunes while recognising in Vicky the girl he loved and lost in an earlier century.

Whether you are a fan of the original or are discovering these characters for the first time, the good news is that Burton has -- in many respects -- succeeded in bringing this exotic melodrama to the screen and introducing the Collins family to a new generation. Depp's Barnabas is a triumph. With his old-fashioned frock coat, Napoleon haircut, sunken eyes, hollow cheeks and unsettlingly pale skin, he looks exactly right; and his often amusing dialogue ("You will cleanse me, miscreant," is addressed to servant Jackie Earle Haley) is spoken in charmingly archaic cadences. Puzzled by much of what he sees and hears in 1972, he responds as best he can, accepting Erich Segal's popular book Love Story as an important work of modern literature. When asked if he's stoned, he replies: "They tried stoning me -- it didn't work." The very strong cast surrounding Depp are all excellent, too, especially Green as the beautiful witch whose jealousy propels the story.

As those references to movies and books of the period indicate, Burton revels in pop culture; the Carpenters perform Top of the World on TV ("Who is that tiny songstress?") and Alice Cooper makes a personal appearance -- not as effective as Tom Jones's contribution to Burton's sublime Mars Attacks!, but fun nonetheless. Burton also finds space for a cameo for Christopher Lee, the actor whose portrayals of Dracula in Hammer horror films proved such a great influence on film buff directors of Burton's generation.

Visually, Dark Shadows is superb, with Collinwood Manor's ornate interior a work of art, filled with secret passages and intricate carvings, some of which eventually come to life. As expected, the visual effects are state of the art.

The film falls short, though, in its depiction of the central love story. Given that his love for Josette-Vicky, and his consequent spurning of Angelique, is the trigger for the entire plot, not enough is made of the relationship -- it's no fault of the actors, just that Heathcote's Vicky disappears from the film for long intervals, reducing the impact of that strand of the story.

FILM
Dark Shadows (M) 3 1/2 stars
National release