Coraline: Whimsical Horror
As Halloween approaches, horror movies, such as Scream and It, and horror stop-motion productions, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, make their annual comeback. But what allows these children's animations to be categorized in the same genre as classic horror films?
When Coraline was released in 2009, it was almost immediately a rousing success, despite initial doubts about whether such a unique movie could find a place in Hollywood. The film was nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar and was recently brought back to theaters for a two-day rerun, where it grossed nearly $5 million.
The movie follows the journey of Coraline, a young and adventurous girl who has recently moved to a dreary new apartment called the Pink Palace, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Soon into the film, we discover that Coraline feels neglected by her parents and especially lonely in her new home, despite getting to know some of her eccentric neighbors, such as Wybie and Mr. Bobinsky. When exploring her house, she discovers a secret tunnel leading to a parallel world that mimics her own but is seemingly better in every way. This alternate world is brighter, more full of life, and her parallel family, the Other Mother and Other Father, gives her whatever she wants. They shower her with gifts and adoration and pay attention to her — something she feels her real parents never did. Although she is overjoyed at first, her elation is only temporary, as she soon discovers that her parallel family, especially her Other Mother, intends to trap her in the alternate world forever.
From just the premise, many underestimate how unsettling and eerie Coraline is, likely because the "horror" aspect of the movie stems less from the story and more from the execution of the movie. Before the movie even begins, the tone of the movie is set from the introduction, depicting a doll being taken apart by a metal hand and transformed to look just like Coraline. While the central idea of the movie surrounds the button eyes that the doll has, rather than the doll itself, the idea of the doll only adds on to the unsettling elements the film adopts. The stop- motion animation style is also extremely significant in this movie, adding to its whimsical aspects. Perfectly merging realism and cartoonish styles, the characters themselves have the appearance of dolls, further reinforcing the common motif.
The way the Other Mother and the Other World slowly progress from something so wonderful to something so terrifying is what arouses feelings of unease. Despite the button eyes, the Other Mother initially appears caring and nurturing rather than creepy. Her genuine "love" towards Coraline seems believable to even the audience watching the movie. Coraline isn't the typical, naive main character often present in horror films. When she first finds the Other World, she experiences the same emotions as the audience. While she is entranced by the bright colors (contrasting with the dull palette used in the real world) and the welcoming, eager-to-please nature of her Other Parents, she is still wary and skeptical. Although small hints that something is wrong with this alternate reality are dropped throughout the beginning of the movie, both Coraline and the audience don't want to believe them. The Coraline doll, the mice's warning, the tea leaf prediction, and Wybie's Grandmothers' fear of the Pink Palace all slowly build up the uneasy feeling that something is amiss. However, when Coraline goes back to the Other World, seeing the mouse circus and the Other Father's garden makes us and Coraline feel as though nothing could possibly be wrong. Throughout the movie, the actions of the Other Mother are very deliberate as she lures Coraline into her trap. She first showers Coraline with gifts and food, then slowly presents the idea of Coraline sewing buttons into her eyes as if it were a mere suggestion, all to ensure Coraline stays with them forever.
With the Other Mother's insistence that Coraline sew the buttons in her eyes, Coraline finally unearths the dark intent behind the Other Mother’s eagerness to please Coraline. However, by that point, it's too late. Coraline can no longer escape from the Other World as she once could. The Other Mother reveals her true monstrous form, unveiling the extent of her manipulative control over the entire other World.
Upon this realization, all the things Coraline once loved about the Other World become sinister. The talking paper dragonflies in her room, the live plants in the garden, Wybie's inability to speak — these are all products of the Other Mother's plan, and as she becomes baleful and evil, so do all of her creations. While Coraline doesn't realize it at the beginning, nothing in the Other World is real. This is demonstrated when Wybie blows his hand away, and the circus mice are revealed to be nothing but sacks of dust. Everything that Coraline believed she knew and loved were nothing more than pawns in the Other Mother's plan to trap Coraline forever.
There are countless things that could contribute to the classification of Coraline as a fantasy horror movie, but it all stems from the unique way the movie was constructed. As a children's movie, Coraline faces many limitations in strategies that most horror movies use to invoke fear, such as violence and gore. These limitations force the movie's creators to employ tactics that are more terrifying psychologically, and this is precisely what makes the movie haunting rather than just scary. The stop-motion animation, which is inherently unsettling, is wonderfully executed, creating a new fairytale-ish horror genre that hasn't been done before. Though some of the thematic elements are similar to animated films such as The Corpse Bride and other Tim Burton movies, Coraline's attention to detail and thorough execution makes it arguably more unnerving than any other stop-motion animation to date.
