“Has Tim Burton lost his mojo?” is the question that is on everybody’s lips. Judging by the fact that 100.000 visitors have already seen the exhibition dedicated to the director in Paris (in comparison, it took the last year Kubrick event five months to attain this number), the answer seems to be negative. It is not very surprising though considering the worldwide popularity of Tim Burton and the intense love the French public has for him.
However, when reading the press reviews of Burton’s latest opus and listening to people’s opinions, it sounds like his star is fading. While he used to be “untouchable”, Burton has seen ever since the releases of Alice In Wonderland and Sweeney Todd his status of genius director challenged. This deconsecrating process of a sacred monster appears to have reached its epitome with the almost unanimous calling-out of his allegedly disappointing DARK SHADOWS by those who worshipped him until then. If his former advocates hated Dark Shadows, what could possibly be my reaction? As someone who has never been crazy about Burton, I thought that my chances of enjoying it where close to zero. But moved by my passion for vampire films and my eternal naive hope to find even the smallest source for rejoice in everything, I gave it a try.
