Curse of Strahd: Theme Primer

Of all the released campaign books for 5e, Curse of Strahd is the most restrictive theme wise. It is very much locked into running it as a dark horror story. This is simultaneously the greatest strength and weakness of the setting. You're buying a guide to constructing one of the best crafted worlds, but you're also essentially locking yourself into it's theme. If you're looking to change something as fundamental as the core theme of CoS, perhaps you should be looking at a different campaign supplement entirely.
CoS also presents challenges to players whom are trying to construct a personal narrative; there's gonna be little in the way of opportunity to incorporate elements from their own story into your greater narrative without some clunkiness. This essentially means you have to be willing to get into such a theme at the expense of anything you are looking to craft for yourself. In CoS, the world is the core narrative, and players are less the agents of their own destiny and more reacting to the world around them. This is fine, infact for some groups it's more than fine. You just gotta ask if that group is yours.
As a player, you have to take the theme and tone of the adventure in consideration when you create your character. Backstory and motivation has to somewhat be in line with the theme of the story. In CoS a player who wants to become a famous bard, telling stories to the townsfolk, might be quite taken aback when he finds the taverns filled with as much mirth as a bowl of dirt soup. Humor has its place in the story but players who don't take the spooky theme seriously and/or decide to roll up silly characters or focus heavily on comic relief can set a tone in the group that is counter to that of the overall horror theme.
Do you like horror? And are you happy to play a game where the focus is less on your character, and more on the world you find yourself in?