Spoofed Again

A little commercial-break from the Sutra…

Being an avid fan of the Original Dark Shadows (circa 1966-1971), I’ve been looking forward with eager anticipation to viewing the long overdue Trailer for the upcoming Tim Burton/Johnny Depp remake, due out in mid-May of this year. The first look of this preview was to be broadcast on a popular afternoon talk show, but was preempted in my area due to a Pro-Basketball game. Well, after finally being able to watch this Trailer (One can now see why it took so long to release it), I have to say I’m glad that the earlier showing was preempted, because it’s pure Trailer-Trash.

The original was so avant-garde in its heyday. Who ever thought of producing a Soap Opera about a reluctant vampire in the middle of the afternoon—yet, it worked and was loved and admired by many. Over the years, the creator and producer of the original—Dan Curtis—was very cautious in creating a new movie version of his beloved concept. His remake of the show back in a prime-time TV spot in 1991 failed miserably; I wasn’t too impressed with the remake at that time—too much emphasis on sensual-imagery and lackluster on character development—something that the original had with such charm. Well, this new “spoof” by Burton, Depp and company make the 1991 run look like a blockbuster classic (ol’ Dan Curtis must be rolling-around in his grave, he died in 2006)—so riddled with intentional spoofs and overkill (as can be gleamed from just over 2-minutes of the trailer) with today’s contemporary extreme sensual/sexual gratification. If you look at the like/dislike column of this trailer on YouTube—you will find the dissatisfaction from the die-hard original fans, but their numbers are pale in comparison with today’s lumped-brained sensually obsessed viewers who just cannot wait to slam their money down to watch Johnny Depp frolicking and screwing-around with a witch on the ceiling and also having a chance to snatch some views of Chloe Moretz’s budding-breasts. Then again, this was apparently Tim Burton’s concept all along…take an aged classic and give it some rambunctious balls solely for the $$$$$. Thanks a lot, Tim, and Johnny, too, for making this splendid retro-remake—but, how could you ruin something that both of you once “purportedly” admired so long ago? I’m not against remakes, or films having a Retro-perspective; in fact, there was a recent Retro-retake on “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” and it was done magnificently and even outshines the original.

Well, looking at all this from the perspective of the Vimalakriti Sutra, I shouldn’t be at all surprised—I can imagine that the sutra caused quite a stir in its own time. Nothing in a Topsy-turvy universe is held sacred…the least being Dark Shadows.