`dark shadows book cover

Tim Burton’s latest slice of morbid nostalgia Frankenweenie is currently riding high on a wave of critical praise and tracing the themes and hand of Burton through his filmography is an easy and enjoyable task. The art and design of his films is, without exception, a huge draw for many of the director’s fans and though Dark Shadows didn’t send a thrill through audiences the phenomenal production design stayed with me and this new Visual Companion is a wonderful look inside the film.

Titan Books have engaged Mark Salisbury to once again step onto the set of a Burton film and return with a wealth of beautiful stills from the film, telling the whole story from almost identical anecdotes from the director and his leading man about how they would dash back from school to watch Dan Curtis’s long-running gothic soap opera which inspired the film to the post production work. What comes across clearly is the love for the story and its characters. One of the best interviews in the books comes from its writer Seth Grahame-Smith who talks about adding the comedic streak to what amounts to a film based on the confusion of a man out of time.

Each of the characters and locations gets an overview, and as is usual with Burton’s films the pre-production artwork is incredibly evocative. There is an example below of the paintings done for the film and these are dotted throughout the book, and the sections dedicated to the visual and special effects will have you marvelling at the visual work at play here. Later chapters delve into the hair, costume, editing and Danny Elfman’s score and each area touched upon is complemented with a host of original images. For a fan of Burton’s films this is an essential purchase.

The section on the small town of Collinsport is great fun, showing how the backlot at Pinewood was completely taken over by the production and an entire port town built on the studio car park. The detail and the behind the scene stills add a new appreciation for the film, if not the story, then at least for the work that went into making this 70s set gothic romance.

Salisbury has written on Burton’s work many times before and the recently revised editon of his Burton on Burton comes highly recommended as it not only takes us through the director’s career from the man himself but it also has many of the original sketches from the preproduction phase of his work. Likewise here his rapport with director and access granted give us an excellent and unique view of the entire process of creating Dark Shadows.

Dark Shadows by Mark Salisbury. Published on 26th October 2012, £29.99, Titan Books. Have a peek here for more info and to order online.