Every Story Has Two Sides To It

Rating: 8/10 (26 November 2012)

"You probably think this world is a dream come true, but you're wrong," said the cat to Coraline. This warning to Coraline (Dakota Fanning), in the film Coraline (2009), is something she has had in her head since the beginning. The director, Henry Selick, has made other mother movies that are also stunning. Richard Roeper compares Henry Selick's work: "Writer/director Henry Selick follows The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach with another meticulously crafted visual gem." This movie is visually stunning which intensifies the creepy scenes and leaves the audience frozen.
The movie Coraline is all about a girl who moves into a new home with her father and mother (Teri Hatcher). He life is boring and dull and her parents pay no attention to her. Coraline is not able to do what she wants and explores he new house and finds a small door. However it is all bricked up, but that night she finds the door again and the bricks are gone and she goes through. Coraline gets to the parallel world and meets her "other" mother (also Teri Hatcher). Everyone in the world has buttons instead of eyes. Her "other" mother and "other" father treat her as though she is the best thing in the world. Coraline is amazed with this other world and when she falls asleep she wakes up back in the real world. She thinks its all a dream until the next night where she goes back and she is faced with more wonders made by her "other" mother. She loves this world and never wants to go back to the real one.
To make a good horror film it was said that, "[ . . . ] by the time you get to the climax [ . . . ] your familiarity with the beast allows you to assess them in a different way" (Fear in the Dark: A Spine-chilling History of Horror Film). Coraline fills this criteria and is a good horror film. I don't think it is for young children or people who are looking for the biggest thrill but it is creepy in its own way. Overall Coraline sends great societal messages and a cute but creepy movie to its audiences and both children and adults with love the horror and thrill for a long time.