Since the first trailer debuted it has been hard to nail down the tone of Tim Burton‘s Dark Shadows. But with a new look and some first impressions, it looks like this update on the TV show could be a fun mix of both comedy and horror. While the marketing indicates some sort of wacky slapstick, an early review on HE reveals otherwise. The viewer writes that while the film is “a gothic romance with strong farcical elements,” there are “full-bodied horror elements” with Johnny Depp as Barnabas committing murders leading up to “a bloody battle.”

This matches up with the MPAA rating of PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking, so here is hoping Burton has created something with a bit of a surprise compared to his last few works. With a release in just a few weeks, we’ll be able to find out soon. Written by Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), the film also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Chloe Moretz and Gulliver McGrath, one can see a new UK trailer below via HeyUGuys.

Synopsis:

In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (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 (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. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles. Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote.

Dark Shadows will hit theaters on May 11th.

No more articles