Dark Shadows Trailer

Everyone, I am DEEPLY sorry: the internet has been down for three days, Adobe keeps crashing and everything is taking five times longer than normal. I am just stopping for the day and off to see 21 Jump Street and will be posting my immediate reactions via Twitter (on the phone, not computer);  hopefully all will be well tomorrow. 
God bless you this Lenten Friday!

Dark Shadows, set for a May 11 release, gives us the year 1972; what happened in 1972? The Watergate Scandal had started and would result in Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. Fear about the economy in the United Kingdom growing as unemployment exceeded 1 million for the first time since World War II; equal rights amendment passed; The Godfather released, the death penalty is declared unconstitutional (interesting considering that "stoning" as a means of state execution is mentioned in the trailer and two vampires who do not die), "The Troubles" begin in Northern Ireland, there is the Munich Massacre of Israeli athletes, growing knowledge about DNA signals the birth of molecular biology, The Joy of Sex is first published (which may have something to do with this film). 1972 was, like 2012, an election year for incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon who won despite low voter turnout.

Besides a "scorned woman" (which we have seen in The Woman in Black, The Innkeepers and now Dark Shadows) there is also importance placed on the family business being "restored." This is obviously a reference to the down economy currently in the country, but what will happen, and exactly why Barnabas is a vampire (a political vampire like Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, or a romantic one like Twilight) will color, to say the least, which side of the political spectrum Barnabas is going to "wake up" on. There is, to say the least, quite a bit of historical baggage the film invites by taking place in 1972, and we will have to see how it unpacks those bags.

This weekend I will be seeing 21 Jump Street, which gave Johnny Depp his kick start in the industry. The same problems which haunted the two lead characters in high school will come back now in their grown up days; there will be excessive foul language in the film, as well as drugs and some sexuality. What I am looking for is not so much the problems the film will present, rather, the cause of the problems and how, if at all, they will be resolved.