‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Is Intense

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Abstract

a time, <i>The Nightmare Before Christmas</i> was very much an adult movie. I bought a ticket to the stop-motion monster mash way back in 1993 right after eating a small tab of blotter paper soaked with LSD. I was 19 years old.</p><p id="eefc">I wish I had a more romantic reason for going to see the movie on hallucinogens — it was the ‘90s! I was a sensitive artist who wanted to push the boundaries! Those were both true, of course. But the real story is I was a <a href="https://readmedium.com/why-men-drink-181903cfe0a'">wee alcoholic with substance abuse problems</a>. I probably would have gone to the movie drunk, but luckily I had a few tabs of acid.</p><p id="e7b5">(For the record — psychedelics do not necessarily improve movies, unless we’re talking the Sylvester Stallone sci-fi masterpiece <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B5v6QZ5R3g"><i>Demolition Man</i></a>.)</p><p id="9cb9">The experience was intense, like being hugged by a giant spider. The animation was breathtaking. The macabre Danny Elfman show tunes were catchy. To this day, the clown with the tear-away face peddles around my subconscious on his tiny unicycle. When it’s revealed that dancing burlap sack Oogie Boogie is full of squirming insects with a snake for a tongue I almost weakly whispered for help from a God that would not come to save me. I identified with Sally, the most. I remember sitting in the theater and thinking “I, too, am a lovelorn ragdoll.”</p><p id="9a70"><i>The Nightmare Before Christmas</i> is a Tim Burton movie that isn’t directed by Tim Burton — animator Henry Selick directed the groundbreaking feature, and he went on to create stop-motion fan favorites like <i>James and the Giant Peach</i> and <i>Coraline</i>. But Selick understands Tim Burton. This is why <i>The</i> <i>Nightmare Before Christmas </i>is the most concentrated dose

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of his cartoonishly expressionistic Edward Gorey-esque aesthetic possible. And watching it on mind-altering drugs is like injecting a second dose right into your brain. For one hour and 16 minutes, I fell down a bottomless grave of Halloween and Christmas imagery. Imagine closing your eyes and seeing Edgar Allan Poe with a very shiny red nose.</p><p id="fef9">I floated out of the theater like a ghost and, a few days later, I floated back sober just to make sure I saw what I saw: a musical about a skeleton’s mid-life crisis. Yup. That’s what I saw.</p><div id="b64e" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/i-think-about-this-scene-from-mars-attacks-all-the-time-c2ade212b750"> <div> <div> <h2>I Think About This Scene From ‘Mars Attacks!’ All The Time</h2> <div><h3>The aliens are the good guys in this movie’s best punchline</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*LkmGfmqHDclgNPVRozh6Fw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="e2d4" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/the-return-of-the-masque-of-the-red-death-5e6721298106"> <div> <div> <h2>Republicans Should Read More Edgar Allan Poe</h2> <div><h3>Specifically, his short story ‘The Masque of the Red Death’</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*G60eSuDrz5Pgh4IeWz6seA.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

It may be a beloved kiddie movie now, but I was a full-grown adult with a head full of drugs when I saw it 27-years-ago

I was clicking around Disney+ after rewatching X-Men: Apocalypse (don’t ask why — I was feeling empty inside) when I came upon Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and was halfway through it before I realized I had hit the play button. I’m a big dorky fan of this goth kid classic.

It was during the “Kidnap The Sandy Claws” number sung by the three devilish trick-or-treaters that I also realized I was watching a Disney movie. I knew this already but it suddenly sunk in. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Disney property, the happiest multinational conglomerate on Earth. They sell the demented merchandise at the theme parks. Jack Skellington works for Micky Mouse.

This movie is officially a beloved part of the American childhood experience. It is probably one of the most popular family-friendly Halloween movies out there. Runners up include 1995’s Casper (starring Christina Ricci), Hocus Pocus, and the original The Witches.

It is not a kid’s movie to me, though. Once upon a time, The Nightmare Before Christmas was very much an adult movie. I bought a ticket to the stop-motion monster mash way back in 1993 right after eating a small tab of blotter paper soaked with LSD. I was 19 years old.

I wish I had a more romantic reason for going to see the movie on hallucinogens — it was the ‘90s! I was a sensitive artist who wanted to push the boundaries! Those were both true, of course. But the real story is I was a wee alcoholic with substance abuse problems. I probably would have gone to the movie drunk, but luckily I had a few tabs of acid.

(For the record — psychedelics do not necessarily improve movies, unless we’re talking the Sylvester Stallone sci-fi masterpiece Demolition Man.)

The experience was intense, like being hugged by a giant spider. The animation was breathtaking. The macabre Danny Elfman show tunes were catchy. To this day, the clown with the tear-away face peddles around my subconscious on his tiny unicycle. When it’s revealed that dancing burlap sack Oogie Boogie is full of squirming insects with a snake for a tongue I almost weakly whispered for help from a God that would not come to save me. I identified with Sally, the most. I remember sitting in the theater and thinking “I, too, am a lovelorn ragdoll.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Tim Burton movie that isn’t directed by Tim Burton — animator Henry Selick directed the groundbreaking feature, and he went on to create stop-motion fan favorites like James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. But Selick understands Tim Burton. This is why The Nightmare Before Christmas is the most concentrated dose of his cartoonishly expressionistic Edward Gorey-esque aesthetic possible. And watching it on mind-altering drugs is like injecting a second dose right into your brain. For one hour and 16 minutes, I fell down a bottomless grave of Halloween and Christmas imagery. Imagine closing your eyes and seeing Edgar Allan Poe with a very shiny red nose.

I floated out of the theater like a ghost and, a few days later, I floated back sober just to make sure I saw what I saw: a musical about a skeleton’s mid-life crisis. Yup. That’s what I saw.