The silence–well the public silence, anyway–is broken and Warner Bros. trailer for the Tim Burton/Richard Zanuck/Johnny Depp relaunch of the beloved ABC cult soap opera DARK SHADOWS has been released...

Predictably, reaction from horror fans is a polarized one. With its candy colored, purely Burton-esque cartoon macabre sheen, its broad performances and wildly silly fish out of water 70’s pop music soundtrack, Burton bashers have their knives out and a few scattered SHADOWS purists are in shock.

This is not the straight faced DARK SHADOWS some have hoped for. This is not a delicious gothic horror show. Or…maybe it is…

Well, as your fearless editor-in-chief and a devout lover of all things Dan Curtis and DARK SHADOWS since I was but a wee laddie, let me cheerfully voice my enthusiasm for this new, weird version of the show that put my love of the macabre into sharp focus . You see, my love for DS is tied to the rose colored nostalgia of my childhood. It was indeed a soap opera, marketed to housewives and kids–the TWILIGHT of its time. And I loved it then and love it now, with a degree of forgiveness for its impoverished production values, teleprompter acting and cliffhanger frustration. Now, the mythology was given a brilliant full throttle horror treatment in Curtis’ big screen adaptation HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS (my third favorite vampire film) and even the fantastic (but sadly prematurely aborted) 90’s version with Ben Cross and Barbara Steele went for the serious chills and melodrama.

Burton loves melodrama, but he presents it from a child’s point of view, with a naïve enthusiasm. He is Hollywood’s last true auteur, a man who created a language and has stayed true to that language. A big kid who loves toys, and with every degree of success he’s earned simply cashes his chips in for bigger toys.

In the pages of the upcoming FANGORIA #313, you will soon see that we talked to Burton, to legendary producer Richard Zanuck and to the wonderful Burton muse and fearless actress Helena Bonham-Carter. In FANGORIA #311 we spoke to screenwriter Seth Graham Greene. All of the participants are adamant this is not a comedy. Warner Bros. wants to market it as such because, well, they don’t know how else to market a blood dripping, hyper gothic and absurdist soap opera fever dream except play up the camp.

But it’s Burton. He will always take horror and blend it with his infectious child’s eye view of the macabre. Burton is AIP, Roger Corman and Hammer Horror mashed with Tex Avery and that’s what makes him HIM.

So I, for one, am completely in, every inch, for this picture. I say that as a DS purist too, and I say that as one who thinks some cineastes take for granted just how important a filmmaker Burton is and how talented and visionary he is. So witness the wild eyed trailer below. And then get ready for some loving coverage of all things SHADOWS–past and present–in the next issue of FANGORIA!

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