The more I hear about Dark Shadows, the more excited I am to see it.  First, there was Tim Burton directing.  Then, of course, the obligatory Johnny Depp performance — Barnabas Collins, no less!  Then it was the rest of the cast, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Grace Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter and Jackie Earle Haley.  Now, with the music being scored by the incredibly talented Danny “would someone PLEASE give this man an Academy Award already?” Elfman, the stage is set for a rip-roaring good time.

 

 

I’ve always been a fan of Elfman, from way back in his Oingo Boingo days, and let’s just say I’m psyched to see what the former “Dead Man’s Party” frontman can do with this score.  Take it away, press release!

“Tim had some specific ideas about the music on Dark Shadows,” says Elfman. “I knew that the bigger dramatic scenes would be played in a rather grand theatrical manner, but the real treat was tapping into the retro pallet Tim had imagined. He wanted something that payed homage to both the original TV series and other ’70s horror genres as well. For that we kept it minimal, eerie, and atmospheric with only electronics and a few solo instruments carrying the melodies.”

And for those of you who need some info (or a refresher course) in the creepy, cheesy soap opera that is the Family Collins:

In the year 1750, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool,England to start a new life in America. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin and the dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets.

The Dark Shadows — Original Score on WaterTower Music will be available digitally and in stores on May 8, 2012; and on the same date, WaterTower Music will also be releasing the Dark Shadows –Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, containing eleven songs from the film.

Dark Shadows glides into theaters on groovy retro bats wings Friday, May 11th.