Dark Shadows Review

The wife and I usually spend the second Friday of the month at a coffee shop in Bloomington. We meet with a group of our friends and talk. It’s an adult’s night where the older kids watch the younger ones and we get away.

But not this last one. We head out and I am talking about getting coffee like normal. She didn’t even smile. We drive a different way than usual but it isn’t out of the way so I comment on it and she stays quiet. Then she turns to head into the movie theater.

“Where are we going?”

She says, “Surprise.”

And just like that it went from the usual evening to date night. A total surprise and a lovely evening with my girl. She had already bought the tickets to the seven o’clock showing of “Dark Shadows” so all I did to help was carry her popcorn.

The movie was ok but more than a little disappointing after paying the fortune that tickets now cost. A decent movie and if you enjoyed either of the TV versions then you will probably be alright with the film. I would wait for video if I were you.

From here down to this weeks story, there are spoilers.

I was good with the story line and with the acting. All of the characters did a good job of performing what they were given. The problem was what they were given.

Dialog was not this movies strong suit. A lot of the scenes were carried by the strength of the actor giving the monolog and there was also a lot of monolog. The three main actors did a great job though.

Plot wise, I hated the sudden drop of the teenager as a werewolf. No foreshadowing of it made this feel like nothing but a chance to give more supernatural cameo’s in the movie. The boy seeing his mother’s ghost was also a little underplayed. Her banshee like wail to protect him made sense but doing something to show his interaction rather than just saying he had seen her would have been nice.

The end of the film, with the poor nanny being turned into a vampire was very cheap. Having it happen in the time of a suicide jump just felt out of character to the rest of the movie. I think it broke the rules of the earlier transformation of the doctor.

The reveal at the end, where the shrink was still alive as a vampire, was foreshadowed. You knew she was going to be there and it was an obvious way to leave an opening for a second movie. However, I won’t go see the second in a theater, it isn’t worth the money.

L. E. White

Me, Myself and I

I looked straight at the man who had ruined so much in my life. His eyes pleaded to me, wanting me to show mercy that we both knew he hadn’t. Our paths had crossed many times over the years and yet this was the only time I had ever managed to look into his eyes. To stare through the windows of his soul and see if some small piece of me was in there.

I cocked the pistol and placed it under his chin. “I won’t let you hurt anyone else.”

I was surprised that the metal felt so cold.