It is no surprise that I liked Coraline [2009] [IMDB Rating: 8.0/10], considering that I am a sucker for fairy tales and especially ones that are able to involve adults as well as kids. Coraline could give me nightmares because it touched a part of me that I have conveniently forgotten and caked up with layers and layers of growing up. While watching any movie, my usual behavior is to repeatedly pause and backtrack a few seconds to hear a dialogue again and then continue and then pause again. It must have happened like at least 30 times in other movies, but in Coraline, it happened twice. And once was because I had to set the dinner.Was it gory? Not at all. This could be the cutest looking horror movie ever. I mean even the evil witch could be a collectible in the doll cabinet. The stop-motion photography is hardly visible. For some time you would wonder if this was created purely by computer graphics. Everything seems so animated and cute and yet a sense of foreboding and loneliness. The sky is clear but you can't shake the feeling that something is not right. You see the hidden deep well and that just makes you uncomfortable. The size of the small door is disconcerting too. Was it only meant for kids? Was it only meant to be crawled through? Was it only for animals? Was is small because it was a secret? I don't know the answer still (must have missed it) or there is no answer. But the door's presence is the presence of your inner fears. That is what this movie is all about.
But like I said, it is not gory or a horror movie in the traditional sense. I mean there is absolutely no blood.
But the opening sequence when the doll is being ripped apart is nothing less than dismembering of someone alive. The smile is cut off, the stitches holding the eyes are snipped, the hair is undone, the lips are cut through, the cotton within is simply pulled in one swift motion, the skin of the doll is turned inside out as if drying a piece of rag and then the whole process is reversed and that gives you a feeling of relief. Its horrific, not to look at, but to feel. I can't quite explain it but if you see it like a child would, you would understand.Based on a book of the same name by Neil Gaiman, Coraline is a novella (something between a novelette and a novel) published by Bloomsury (yes, the same house that published the legandary Harry Potter series) and Harper Collins.
The plot is fairly simple. Young girl, moved to a new location, bored with everything, neglected by parents, self confessed adventurer finds a secret small door that opens only in the night and only to her. Adults of course refuse to believe her, and she is pushed to the other side where the 'other' adults make her feel good and pampered. Who could refuse a tasty turkey followed by dessert and the performance of the jumping mice? Not me.
She gets in too much and then has to fight the evil witch to not only save herself, but also her parents and some other children who had fallen prey to the witch.
Pan's Labyrinth falls within the bucket of 'watched and liked' and Coraline surely falls into the same bucket. A shallower splash than the notable 'Pan's Labyrinth' by Guillermo del Toro, but the ripples play around just as long with that part of your childhood when you were still scared of darkness.
And just after the movie dawned to an end and the warm feeling of 'everything will be all right' was creeping in my viens, the lights went out. Not scared because I knew that there is no such thing as a ghost, but I could feel the tingle on my skin. The realization that darkness is where evil hides. And someday, something is surely gonna make use of it and creep close enough to me. And these are the kind of thoughts that watching a fantasy horror movie is worth. And somehow, the thought of having buttons for eyes is not only creepy and gory in my head, but scares the living daylights out of me.
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