30 in 30: A MONTH OF HORROR. CORALINE
DAY 29
CORALINE (2009)
Of course, CORALINE is a horror film, is just one to watch with the whole family.
This film is utterly gorgeous. You should check it out just for the animation itself, the amount of love and craftsmanship stop-motion animators put into their work is palpable in every frame. A total feast for the eyes. Director Henry Selick has a lot of experience directing stop-motion feature films, and you can see it in almost every scene. Brilliant.
CORALINE is the story of a young girl who moves to a new house; there she finds a door that can take her to another version of her world. One where everything is brighter, funnier and her other mom lets her do whatever she wants. She visits the other world any chance she gets until her other mother wants her to stay there… forever.
A great mixture of fantasy and horror that only a story about a child can evoke. This movie explores those ideas we had as children, where a shadow could turn into a strange monster, and a sound outside your window could be the cry of a winged beast. It mixes an escapist childhood fantasy, with a classic horror cautionary tale.
Writer Neil Gaiman crafts a world were the peculiar seems more common than anywhere else. Director Selick accentuates the oddness of CORALINE’s world with impeccable production design. The dark colors, the slightly strange shapes of the house, the unusual characters. They create a world where we know something magical can happen. This heightens our suspension of disbelief.
CORALINE doesn’t need gore and blood to tell a horror story. Animation lets the creators go further with visual concepts. They can explore ideas and designs that push creepiness into our unconscious mind. What do I mean by this? Take the “other mother”, for example, her transformation into a spider-like figure makes her instantly creepy and menacing, without having to do much else. Horror can be found in sharp angles and dark rooms, no need for blood and guts.
But why is CORALINE a children’s story? Children are naturally attracted to stories like these because they are testing the waters, pushing themselves. They want to see how far they can go. They too have an interest in the unknown. The same way a dark corridor can be scary and slightly attractive. The mystery of what is on the other side of a closed door attracts us both, young and old.
CORALINE is a great film because it teaches us that horror doesn’t always have to be devastating or final. The experiences Coraline goes through are scary but constructive; she’s not traumatised by being in the strange “netherworld,” she’s stronger for it.
We’ve seen in this film “horror” is an aesthetic, and we can use it to tell any story we want. We don’t have to be bound by an antihuman punchline at the end of every horror story. CORALINE uses the aesthetics of the dark to pull in brave and curious kids, give them a nice ride full of emotions, and makes them stronger for it.
The film treats death and the strange as part of the regular world. Not something to be afraid of, but something that can be useful. That we can learn from.
CORALINE teaches us that horror can be constructive, instead of always being destructive.
Tomorrow: HALLOWEEN (2018)
Yesterday: KILL LIST (2011)
