Corpse Bride

From the director of some of the spookiest movies ever made (Edward Scissor Hands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow), Tim Burton, comes an all new full length claymation classic… The Corpse Bride. Yikes, I almost didn’t even open this one up, it sounded like a normal, run-of-the-mill psycho thriller, but it won’t be. As I watched the special features for Burton’s Sleepy Hollow one quote stuck out to me and Jim, “he [Burton] has a great sense of humor.” More like a “disturbing” sense of humor. The first Burton film I ever saw was Batman in 1989 and it WOWed me (actually I saw a clip from Beetlejuice while on the USS Carl Vinson in 1988). It wasn’t just a great story, but the sets, the camera angles, the music, and the “humor” all made for a wonderfully spooky experience. As I think back on Burton’s filmography every single title conjures the same spooky feel. Even his “feel good” film of 2003 Big Fish had a spook factor. His “kids movies” too seem to be out to scare the kids as much as make them laugh. I can remember sitting in the theater watching James and the Giant Peach and freaking out when the huge mechanical shark jumps out of the water to devour the flying peach. Needless to say, this new film, The Corpse Bride, will carry with it the same spook factor combined with Burton’s favorite selling point, Jonny Depp, and introducing a favorite spooky actress of mine, Hellan Ebonum Carter.

This brings up an interesting question concerning movies, should movies be made to scare us, and if so, how? This movie will certainly be creepy, but how and why? Based on the preview we see that there are skeleton dogs and brides walking around, talking to people and reaching out from the ground and grabbing passers-by. Obviously for any adult who has been desensitized by “real” scary movies this will seem like child’s play, but that right there is the problem. This is not a kid’s movie. James and the Giant Peach may have been for kids, but how would we convince ourselves that undead brides are a subject for kids (or adults). Is this really entertainment? As you can tell I am excited about this film, but simply for the combination of director, actors, and medium (clay), not for it’s content. I like to be frightened while watching a movie, what I don’t like is that movie targeted to children who will be frightened beyond their ability to cope with and who may be left having nightmares. While I was down in Florida over Christmas break my family sat around watching movies (as we always do) and one of the movies we watched was Jurassic Park. I know that the first time I watched this movie I was petrified, so to allow my little 5 year old brother to watch it just seems a little twisted. I think in general we need to be more careful what we allow our children to become numb to. I want my kids to be afraid that Bambi’s mom is gonna die, not that the man-eating, genetically engineered, computer generated werewolf is gonna eat the children running through the woods. That we don’t need.

My Rating: 8/10 - The film will be well made, the story will be intriguing, but are films like this worth watching?