The Failed Fantasy Johnny Depp and Tim Burton Horror Team-Up Bites Into a New Streaming Home
There’s no denying that Johnny Depp has done some of the best work of his career under the direction of Tim Burton, across a variety of genres. But it has been over a decade since they last worked together. Their last film together was also their biggest flop; it debuted in 2012, after which both Burton and Depp experienced a rough patch, for vastly different reasons. While Burton bounced back last year with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Depp’s personal troubles have seemingly delayed any comeback that he might have been hoping for. However, an entire generation grew up on his movies with Burton, and Dark Shadows was, in many ways, the end of an era. You can watch the fantasy film on Prime Video next month.
Released in 2012, the movie was adapted from the television show of the same name, which was apparently not as valuable an IP as either Burton or Depp might’ve anticipated. The movie made just under $250 million at the worldwide box office, against a massive reported budget of $150 million. Set in the 1970s, Dark Shadows followed a vampire who tries to assimilate with his descendants following his reawakening. The movie was presumably green-lit thanks to the Twilight Saga, which made vampires more popular than they’d ever been before. But unlike that franchise, Dark Shadows wasn’t aimed at teenagers, even though it featured Chloë Grace Moretz in a subplot that could conceivably have been targeted at them.
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp Have Worked on Memorable Movies
The film earned mixed reviews, and is now sitting at a 35% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “The visuals are top-notch, but Tim Burton never finds a consistent rhythm, mixing campy jokes and gothic spookiness with less success than other Johnny Depp collaborations.” Depp and Burton’s partnership dates back to 1990, when they delivered the cult classic Edward Scissorhands. They subsequently worked together on the comedy drama Ed Wood, the Gothic horror Sleepy Hollow, the children’s movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the stop-motion film Corpse Bride, and the blockbuster Alice in Wonderland.
You can watch Dark Shadows on Prime Video beginning December 30, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
May 9, 2012
Runtime
113 minutes
Writers
Seth Grahame-Smith
Producers
Bruce Berman, Christi Dembrowski, Graham King, Johnny Depp, Nigel Gostelow, Richard D. Zanuck, David Kennedy
