Tim Burton is among the few administrators who may be seen as a grasp of the macabre. Whereas he has not all the time made full-on horror movies, his filmography maintains a predominantly Gothic tone with uncommon characters, and they don’t all the time have completely happy endings. Even his comedies like Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks, and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure take care of dying, play with the supernatural, or have unsettling imagery. Even the flicks he merely produced underneath different administrators, like The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach function his design aesthetic so closely that many neglect he didn’t technically direct these films.
His movies typically have a whimsical tone or setting, however additionally they take care of monsters, darkish human impulses, and visuals that come straight out of a kid’s nightmares – which to some makes them much more unsettling. Burton’s movies usually are not fully as bleak as movies made by the likes of Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, or Stanley Kubrick, however they famously go to darker locations than the likes of Stephen Spielberg or George Lucas.
10 ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ (2024)
Written by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar
It could keep on with the unique’s enjoyable tone, however Beetlejuice Beetlejuice nonetheless has a narrative filled with black comedy that goes to extra excessive locations than its predecessor. Lydia Deetz’s (Winona Ryder) reward to speak to ghosts has introduced her nice skilled success, it has additionally made a rift between her and her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Amid a household tragedy, Astrid is whisked away to the afterlife, and Lydia realizes there’s just one one who can assist her – the identical ghost who tried to pressure her to marry him all these years in the past.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has a supporting cast that includes far less sympathetic characters than the original, together with a person who takes benefit of a girl in grief, a teenage ghost who is way extra psychotic than he lets on, and Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) himself is proven to be a real menace regardless of his goofy demeanor. It’s the funniest movie Burton’s made in years, but it surely additionally matches his sense of darkness.
9 ‘Miss Peregrine’s Residence For Peculiar Kids’ (2016)
Written by Jane Goldman
Based mostly on the darkish fantasy e-book by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Residence for Peculiar Kids is a spot informed in tales by an previous man (Terence Stamp) to his grandson Jacob (Asa Butterfield). After his grandfather’s dying, Jacob travels to see the house, an previous home caught in a time loop years earlier than it was destroyed in a WW2 raid. He befriends the titular headmistress (Eva Inexperienced) and her adopted youngsters, all born with stage and distinctive powers – and all in peril from creatures referred to as Hollowgasts that feed on the eyes of Perculiars like them.
Miss Peregrine’s Residence for Peculiar Kids has a well-recognized setup of a secret dwelling for youngsters born with distinctive talents who reside shielded from a world that persecutes them. Nonetheless, Burton’s knack for darkish storytelling helps this one stand out, opening with a horrifying dying of a member of the family, children with talents that wouldn’t be misplaced in Halloweentown, and some really horrifying villains with the Hollowgasts. It’s a darkish fantasy movie for youths that’s greatest watched with a member of the family at their facet.
8 ‘Corpse Bride’ (2005)
Written by John August, Caroline Thompson & Pamela Pettler
Corpse Bride is the primary stop-motion movie directed by Burton, and it has a decidedly more mature premise than his other stop-motion works. Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) is because of be married to a girl he hardly is aware of. When the rehearsal goes improper, he decides to follow his vows on what he thinks is a root – solely to appreciate he’s by chance married a corpse. As soon as he’s whisked away to the land of the lifeless, he begins to bond together with his new bride Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), whereas making an attempt to get again dwelling and save his dwelling fiancée from assembly his corpse bride’s destiny.
Corpse Bride has an identical non secular vibe to The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas, but has a far much less whimsical tone and story-line. The titular bride is a tragic determine with a darkish backstory, and the movie’s villain is a chilly, calculating assassin whose strategies are extra calculating than the likes of Oogie Boogie. The darkness extends to the visible palette, the place the world of the dwelling is so bleak, colorless, and unromantic that those who recognize life essentially the most are the lifeless.
7 ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (2010)
Written by Linda Woolverton
Whereas blamed by many as the beginning of a low level in Burton’s profession, Alice in Wonderland on the very least has a sure darkness to it that units it aside from different live-action Disney remakes. 13 years after her first journey down the rabbit gap, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) finds herself again in Wonderland (or Underland because the locals name it) – but it surely’s a far completely different place than when she noticed it. The Crimson Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) has taken over, and all who oppose her are both beheaded or killed by her pet dragon, the Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee).
Whereas having a narrative that appears to exit of its approach to be completely different from the e-book and the animated Disney movie, it has extra darkish creativity than some have given it credit score for. It could possibly even get violent, with on-screen decapitation, eyeballs getting stabbed and even the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) will get a tragic backstory. It’s by no means the best adaptation of the story, but it surely nonetheless has a Burton attraction to its design.
6 ‘Batman’ (1989)
Written by Sam Hamm & Warren Skaaren
Earlier than 1989, Batman was seen by the general public as a jokey, campy character, due in no small half to the repute of the Adam West TV present. However all that modified largely due to Burton. This Batman (Michael Keaton) shouldn’t be a quippy super-detective, however reasonably a brooding, quiet force of nature that terrifies all who greet him. After which there’s the movie’s tackle the Joker’s origin, with mobster Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson) not solely getting the usual pores and skin bleach but in addition a disfigurement that leaves him with a everlasting grin on his face.
The movie’s depiction of Gotham Metropolis is a darkish, hellscape model of Metropolis, placing Burton’s love of German Expressionism to good use. Whereas not all the time having constancy to the supply materials, it nonetheless made audiences take Batman severely once more. Largely, Burton caught to the character’s true darkish tone and Gothic stylization that made him beloved within the comics.
5 ‘Edward Scissorhands’ (1990)
Written by Caroline Thompson
Edward Scissorhands is probably not Burton’s darkest work visually, but it surely’s for sure his most bittersweet. Up in a fort above a small city lives Edward (Johnny Depp), a synthetic man whose inventor died earlier than ending his work. When he’s found by a pleasant household, he’s introduced into the guts of American suburbia, who at first marvel at him and make him an area movie star. However their mutual lack of knowledge quickly drives the neighborhood in opposition to him, with solely the love of a woman giving him hope.
Edward Scissorhands has certainly one of Burton’s brightest coloration palettes, but that solely highlights how tragic the story of Edward is. While Edward tries to fit in, his lack of communication skills and the city’s lack of foresight results in a everlasting wedge between the 2 – and ends in Edward committing an act of violence that every one however ensures he’ll by no means be capable to be part of what we take into account to be regular society. In different phrases, a darkish fairy story for the goth child in us all.
4 ‘Darkish Shadows’ (2012)
Written by Seth Grahame-Smith
Based mostly on the cleaning soap opera of the identical identify, Dark Shadows tells the story of Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), a vampire who reawakens in 1972 and returns to his property to fulfill his descendants. Whereas many jokes are made about an 18th-century creature of the night time making an attempt to cover his true nature while adjusting to Nineteen Seventies sensibilities, his household is proven to have their very own darkish secrets and techniques. All of the whereas, the witch (Eva Inexperienced) that cursed him tries to destroy his household as soon as and for all.
Darkish Shadows has excessive tonal clashes between a campy comedy and melodramatic horror. Whereas the lead vampire is one thing of a sympathetic determine, he nonetheless kills harmless individuals left and proper. Consequently, the morality of the movie is consistently in flux, with each the heroes and villains having their the explanation why they do what they do however typically take issues too far. If Darkish Shadows is a movie about household, then the Collins are one of many darkest households on the market.
3 ‘Sleepy Hole’ (1999)
Written by Andrew Kevin Walker
Whereas Burton’s aesthetics have all the time leaned on the darker finish of the style spectrum, Sleepy Hollow is his first straight horror movie. Loosely impressed by the basic Washington Irving story, police constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is distributed to the quiet little village of Sleepy Hole, a Dutch settlement stricken by murders that the locals insist had been dedicated by an area spirit – the Headless Horseman (Ray Park & Christopher Walken). Now Ichabod should attempt to uncover the reality behind this supposed folktale earlier than extra heads begin to roll.
Most of Burton’s movies pay tribute to numerous forms of horror (predominantly German Expressionism), however Sleepy Hole stands out as following the model of a classical Hammer Horror movie. This implies moody performing, a largely grey coloration palette, and blood that’s so crimson it appears to pop off the display screen. The movie turns the basic story into one thing of a supernatural slasher film, with a number of characters assembly grisly fates in a respectful tribute to a form of horror that sometimes goes overlooked.
2 ‘Batman Returns’ (1992)
Written by Daniel Waters
Whereas the unique Batman film was embraced by audiences, Batman Returns proved to be a bit too darkish for many audiences’ liking. Largely, this alienating darkness got here from a single character – The Penguin (Danny DeVito). In comparison with the gentleman villain of the comics, this model of Oswald Cobblepot is a deformed, perverted, animalistic freak who seeks to get revenge on Gotham’s elite by first operating for mayor and unleashing his gang of circus freaks on town, then by making an attempt to homicide all of Gotham’s firstborn youngsters in a contemporary biblical plague. If that wasn’t sufficient, Batman and Catwoman’s (Michelle Pfeiffer) romance ends in tragedy, with one seemingly dying, and one going to spend Christmas alone.
These parts, in addition to the chilly distinction to the movie’s Christmastime setting, resulted in additional backlash than Warner Bros. was ready for, leading to Burton handing the reigns to Joel Schumacher for the much more family-friendly Batman Forever. However in time, Batman Returns’ darker parts have turn out to be celebrated by cult audiences and helped set it aside from different Batman movies.
1 ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Road’ (2007)
Written by John Logan
Based mostly on the hit Broadway present of the identical identify, Sweeney Todd is a musical that tells a dark story of vengeance and murder. It begins with Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) returning to London after serving 15 years in jail for against the law he didn’t commit, looking for vengeance on the Choose (Alan Rickman) who tore his household aside. When his alternative for revenge is taken, Todd goes off the deep finish and decides to kill everybody who comes into his barbershop for a shave. That’s when his lovesick neighbour Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) decides so as to add a brand new recipe to her meat pies.
Fairly than becoming the standard Burton archetype of a misunderstood loner with a present, the lead of this musical thriller believes everyone seems to be terrible and everybody deserves to die. Few characters survive to the tip and are completely scarred by what they undergo. Whereas the unique Broadway musical is a black comedy, the movie carries extra of a deadpan, moody tone that makes it Burton’s darkest movie but.
