The Burton/Depp Dark Shadows is dead to me.

Years ago, when I heard that Johnny Depp was interested in making a Dark Shadows movie, I was thrilled. THRILLED! How could I have known? Who could have predicted that, by the time that dream came true, it would be a Tim Burton-ized nightmare? Even when I heard that it would be another Burton/Depp collaboration, I had hope. Maybe this would be the chance for Burton to run with the fantastically dark and ease up a little on the anvilicious whimsy? Then the first pictures of Depp as Barnabas came out, and I knew for sure that this would not be the Dark Shadows for me. Today, a friend sent me the trailer, and it is the proverbial nail in the coffin (or the chains around it, given the source material). How bad does it look? Note that I'm not providing a link to it. It looks like Burton, Depp, et al. have made Dark Shadows via The Addams Family, and it doesn't even look like a funny version of that. Too bad, I think, and a waste of a stellar cast.