Dark Shadows is a comedy? Hmmmm.

While I was just a wee little one when Dark Shadows originally aired on TV, I did catch the reruns a little later on in life, and I can safely say that the Tim Burton movie of the same name, starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, is a very distant relative to the original Gothic soap opera.

My feelings on the updated Dark Shadows are divided. There are some genuinely funny moments in the trailer (Reveal thyself, tiny songstress), but there are also some really lame ones (Collins brushing his fangs in front of a mirror, although he can only see the toothbrush in the reflection). Burton revels in all things 70′s with this period piece. I haven’t decided yet if that’s good or bad.

I’m fairly certain that part of my initial distaste for the preview is the shock at discovering this is a comedy. I had no clue… and that’s saying a lot since I provide entertainment news for a movie site. Even the trailer starts off with a misleading atmosphere. We see Barnabas Collins head-over-heels in love (or maybe it’s simply lust) with a certain woman, and we see a spurned witch curse Collins to an eternity as a vampire locked within his coffin. Then we flash to the 70′s and see the coffin dug up as a ghostly apparition appears in Collinwood Manor and warns, “He’s coming.” After that, Dark Shadows seems to have more in common with The Addams Family than with its own TV namesake.

Personally, I think horror and comedy work excellently together when handled well. I loved Zombieland at the theater, and Jesse Petersen’s Married with Zombies put a a great spin on the zombie apocalypse, with plenty of tense, dark moments to balance out the laughs. Still, I’m not sure about this one. Dark Shadows was up towards the top of my ‘must-watch list, with only The Hobbit and The Avengers above it. Now, it’s looking more like a DVD for a rainy weekend.

What do you think about the trailer? Was it what you were expecting?

New Trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

The new trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter recently hit the web, and this movie looks like it’s going to be awesome.

I haven’t read Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2010 mashup novel of the same name that the film is based on, but I think I’ll be adding it to my TBR pile now. While the title makes it seem like something that would be a little tongue-in-cheek, the movie trailer shows that the 16th President of the United States battling an undead army is being viewed as the real deal, with what appears to be a smooth blending of fact with fiction.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter hits theaters on June 22.

The Vampire Lestat to Return to Big Screen in The Tale of the Body Thief?

We first saw Anne Rice’s Lestat in 1994’s Interview With the Vampire, with Tom Cruise playing Lestat. The vampire was back in 2002′s Queen of the Damned, with Stuart Townsend playing the character. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it looks like Lestat might come back to the big screen, with Rice’s The Tale of the Body Thief being optioned by Imagine Entertainment.

The Tale of the Body Thief, the fourth book in Rice’s series, The Vampire Chronicles, tells the story of Lestat switching bodies with a psychic so he can escape the drudgery of being a vampire for a little while. Meanwhile, the psychic, who’s actually thrilled to have all the powers of the undead, splits, forcing Lestat to track him down so he can get his body back.

Books get optioned all the time, but that doesn’t mean they’ll actually complete the journey from page to screen, so maybe we won’t be assaulted by this. I couldn’t finish Interview with the Vampire in book form, couldn’t stand Cruise as a vampire, and was even less enthused with Queen of the Damned. Lestat was one of those first angsty vampires that opened the door to allow Edward Cullen into our world. I’m ready for the Twilight craze to die so vampires can once again reign from their blood-drenched thrones. The Tale of the Body Thief might keep the emo vampire in the spotlight, and it needs to have a stake driven through its heart.

Super Bowl 2012 Audi Vampire Party Commercial

If you watched the Super Bowl then you probably had a chance to get a chuckle from the gang of hapless vampires that encountered the super-bright headlights of Audi.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first saw this, although I was picking up a distinct Twilight vibe that almost made me miss this hilarious piece. I’m glad I stuck around because Audi definitely knows how to provide a few laughs… which is good, considering how much they probably shelled out to have this air during the Super Bowl.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Personally, I’m ready to get one and then head to Forks in search of a certain sparkly vampire.