Based on a gothic series that ran on American TV during the far-off 1960s, Dark Shadows stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, the scion of a prosperous British mercantile family in 18th-century New England, who's turned into a vampire by a local witch and buried at night in the local woods. Accidentally disinterred in 1972, during that brief period between Watergate and the end of the Vietnam war, Barnabas sets about restoring the family's fortune. Made in Britain, exquisitely shot by the French cameraman Bruno Delbonnel (who lit Amelie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Sokurov's Faust) and beautifully designed by Burton's regular collaborator, Rick Heinrichs, Dark Shadows is a visual delight. Depp is a poised, proud, sad figure, frightened by his own ability to cause harm. But ultimately the film is rather ordinary, a bit like a modest Roger Corman horror flick embarrassed by the size of its budget.