Falcon Flyer Fall 2023-2024 | Page 16

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Is it for Christmas or Halloween?

The Nightmare Before Christmas is considered a classic in the movie industry. Though, many crazed movie fanatics engage in an argument centered around The Nightmare Before Christmas; this argument being: is it a Halloween movie, or a Christmas movie? Now personally, I haven't seen the movie up until recently, when it was re-released into theaters because of it’s 30th birthday, but I think that it is a Halloween movie, and here are a couple reasons why I feel this way.

The movie was initially released on October 29th, 1993. This, to me, is the first giveaway that it was intended for the purpose of Halloween. In the movie, Jack Skellington is the renowned “pumpkin king.” After another Halloween filled with scares, Jack, disappointed and bored with his holiday, stumbles upon a door made of a Christmas Tree, walks in, and his obsession with a scary Christmas takes flight in that very moment. Because of the release date, and the fact that Jack is the king of pumpkins, not presents, cookies and milk, or a big red suit and a bag of presents, I feel that the movie was intended to be surrounded by the ambiance

of Halloween.

Another element in the movie is the characters and their backstories, those pertaining to the impression of Halloween. Some examples of these characters are Sally, Jack’s girlfriend, Oogie Boogie, a monster, and Dr. Finklestein, a mad scientist.

By: Silvana Safranko