Everyone who knows me understands my passion for stop-motion films. And Corpse Bride is one I love and decided to re-watch – and wow, it's a lot creepier than I remember.
I absolutely adore stop-motion. I have for years. I loved Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio with all my thoughts, but I will happily re-watch Coraline for memories because it fills me with glee. Honestly, I've looked at many of these movies as pre-horror Alex – some of them have some pretty creepy premises inside of them, and somehow, little me didn't have nightmares.
While I consider Tim Burton's Corpse Bride – better known as Corpse Bride – one of my favorite stop-motion films (and one of Tim Burton's movies I really loved), I hadn't seen it in a long time. So in honor of spooky season, I decided to check it out. And wow, this movie is a million times creepier than I remembered as a kid. And now I have to talk about it.
The Characters Feel Even More Unhinged Than Many Other Burton Animations
So here's the thing with Tim Burton's stop-motion films – it's not like they're known to be particularly nice-looking.
His first stop-motion film was The Nightmare Before Christmas, and while it is one of my favorite Christmas movies ever, the characters in it aren't super cute. The main character is a skeleton with a ghost dog named Zero, and his love interest is basically a female Frankenstein named Sally, who is falling apart at the seams.
Tim Burton probably won't work with Disney again after Dumbo. Here's why.
I'm used to strange-looking creatures in these movies, so I always expect to be weirded out a bit by the characters I am introduced to in any Tim Burton movie. However, there's just something about the characters in Corpse Bride that doesn't sit as well as the others do.
Personally, I think it's all because of the lighting. The living world looks so dull and colorless, making the characters we meet there, like Victoria and Victor, look much more weird when the underworld is full of so much color. And even then some of the characters we meet in the underworld are incredibly creepy, at least for a little kid.
It astounds me that this never freaked me out as a child.
And The Fact That You Enter The Underworld Consistently With Limbs Practically Falling Off Is A Lot For Kids
Again, it's not like I'm not used to limbs falling off in other Tim Burton movies. Even in his live-action films, he's had that happen plenty of times. Most of the actors who have been in Burton's films can attest to this.
But I was not prepared for how often it did happen in Corpse Bride as an adult. A name like Corpse Bride should indicate that you'll be dealing with corpses, but I think, for some reason, I blocked that part out of my brain long ago.
And I'm not even talking about how Emily constantly falls apart. I'm talking about all the other creatures and dead humans there. It's a lot for me to handle during the movie – I don't know how I did it as a kid.
The Music Hauntingly Beautiful, And Adds That Perfect Amount Of Dread
There are plenty of notable musical composers from my past that I've grown to love even more. I could listen to the best Hans Zimmer scores for hours or even check out all the fantastic John Williams pieces. But the music in Burton's movies has always been top-tier, and that's usually because he works with Danny Elfman.
The composer is known to collaborate with the filmmaker in several of his movies, and he has a way of making music sound so beautiful and yet so dreadful at the same time. And that's what Corpse Bride made me feel; it added to the creepy nature of the film but didn't take away from the story at hand, instead enhancing it and making the moments more beautiful.
I can't tell you how often I've listened to "Piano Duet" from this movie. It truly sparks something in my soul that I can't quite explain. So chillingly good.
Also, I Did Not Recall Emily’s Story Being This Dark And Creepy
This is something I completely forgot, and Emily's story is freaking dark and creepy as heck. Basically, the said "corpse bride" is named Emily (who is voiced by Helena Bonham Carter in one of her best movies), a young woman who died very young. And it turns out she was murdered by her own fiancé, who stole her family's wealth.
Said fiancé comes back later in the story to try and marry Victoria for her wealth, but the entire point that Emily could not move on was that she was tormented by this fact. The one person she had loved had murdered her, and now she needed to find new love in the underworld, which is what led to the whole story with Victor. Not only that, but her former fiancé is creepy and will willingly marry younger women to get his hands on wealth.
Like, what? I didn't remember that from watching this film as a kid, and now, I'm suddenly overwhelmed by emotions. I can't believe that this poor woman went through all this pain. And it makes her ending that much better now.
For Some Reason, I Think I Blocked Out Emily’s Fingers Or Eyes Falling Off
Yeah, this is also really random, but I did not remember Emily's hands and eyes and everything else popping out as much, and I'll openly admit it turned up my nose a little.
I don't view it necessarily in the wrong way. It's more of an "I can't believe my parents let me watch this" way. This movie has so many eyes popping out that it surprised me at first, but Emily was on another level with how many times her eyes and hands ended up coming off her body.
I get that she's a corpse, but damn. I'm getting "why did my parents let me watch Beetlejuice?" vibes with this movie a little.
The Movie Is Still One Of My Childhood Favorites, Even If It Grosses Me Out A Little Now
What's funny is that I literally love horror movies. I will watch the best horror movies for hours or do an A24 best horror movie binge for spooky season. Still, for some reason, Corpse Bride is the film that actually made me stick my tongue out because of the amount of limbs and eyes that were popping out and the darkness of the story.
But that's because I was going into this from the perspective of an adult who didn't remember much of this plot when I was a child. I didn't realize how intense and dark it is; truthfully, it makes for a good story. Corpse Bride is still one of my favorites; there's no doubt about that. The music is excellent, the story is entertaining, and the stop-motion is outstanding.
However, I will say that I do favor some of Burton's other stop-motion work – and quite honestly, everything falls flat under Coraline, the stop-motion film that somehow made both spooky and fun blend together easily.
Corpse Bride attempts it, but it goes a little too far, and I don't know how I enjoyed this as a kid – but I suppose I did precisely that, blocking out the creepy parts.
Either way, the film still stands up as a great one, and I'll probably check it out or recommend it to those who have yet to see it. But as for a great kid's movie? It depends on the child – be sure they're OK with limbs and eyes popping out everywhere before they check it out because this film is something else.
Spooky season is in full swing, and now I am checking out the best upcoming horror TV shows or horror movies to get myself fully ready. Or I could check out more fantastic stop-motion creepy movies. Depends on how I'm feeling.
