With Halloween being right around the corner, pumpkin carving, eating candy corn, and watching a scary movie can all get you into the Halloween spirit. Although there are many great Halloween movies, there is one film that has split movie watchers for over 30 years.
“A Nightmare Before Christmas” has been a very popular film because people can not decide whether it is a Halloween or Christmas movie. The movie was based upon Tim Burton’s poem, “A Nightmare Before Christmas,” which was a parody of the classic poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. The stop-motion film uses characters from the poem to create an eerie story in the famous Tim Burton style.
The movie is set in a city named Halloween Town. Jack Skellington, the protagonist, and other creatures such as the Boogie Man, vampires, a werewolf, and scary clowns are some of the traditional, halloween monsters depicted in the movie. In the film, Jack Skellington finds himself in Christmas Town, and the new holiday with completely different morals and traditions gave him the idea to make his own form of Christmas. Using his friends’ help, he distorts Christmas into a terrifying problem for families on the 25th of December,
By incorporating aspects of both holidays, movie watchers have trouble deciphering to which celebration the movie belongs. Some believe that it is exclusively a Halloween movie. Freshman Reagan Cassidy stated in an interview, “It is obviously a Halloween movie. Almost all of the music has a really scary and spooky vibe to it. My favorite part of the movie is either the opening song, ‘This is Halloween’ or ‘The Oogie Boogie’s Song.’” The music that comes with movie scenes creates intentional tones and moods from the director. It sets the vibe of the movie and helps the viewers of each movie connect to the characters and scenes. In this particular movie, Danny Elfman composed all of the music and scores for “A Nightmare Before Christmas.” Danny Elfman is a famous composer and singer who wrote music for other movies and shows such as “The Corpse Bride” and “Wednesday.”
Even though there are elements of Halloween terror, some Hingham High Schoolers believe that “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is exclusively a Christmas movie. Sophomore Ella Halsing said, “It is definitely a Christmas movie because it is plotted around Christmas time and the main characters go to Christmas Town as well as take over the holiday.” Similar to Ella’s statement, junior Grace Moore believes that, “It is more of a Christmas movie because he [the Boogie Man] spends the majority of the time trying to make his own Christmas.”
Although both perspectives of this movie can be true, many students at Hingham High School have decided that instead of it belonging to one holiday or the other, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” can be watched as both a Halloween and Christmas classic. Sophomore Ava Halsing shared, “It’s a really good movie with aspects from both holidays. I enjoy watching the movie in both the fall and the winter as a bridge between the two seasons.”
Overall, the students of Hingham High School are very divided on whether the film, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” is a Halloween or Christmas movie, but all sides have good points as to why they believe it should go to a certain holiday or both.
