The latest role is that of Barnabas Collins, a gaunt, unflappable vampire, who has dozed for a couple of hundred years and woken to nineteen-seventies America.

NEWYORKER: Chills and Thrills

Within a few months, Mr. Grahame-Smith completely restructured and rewrote the screenplay, injecting it with campy humor that plays up the film's absurd premise: Barnabas Collins, a vampire played by Mr. Depp, emerges from a coffin after 200 years to find himself in the polyester, lava-lamp world of 1972.

WSJ: Seth Grahame-Smith: The Master of the Mash-Up

The plot is no more than a thread: Barnabas must revive the Collins fortune whilst fending off the attentions, both amorous and savage, of a sorceress named Angelique (Eva Green).

NEWYORKER: Dark Shadows

As Barnabas schemes to turn the Collins family from old money to nouveau riche, Angelique appears, demanding that he requite her unrequited love.

FORBES: 'Dark Shadows' Is More Light Than Dark