The True Scariness of The Nightmare Before Christmas

What's This? What's This? There's Hot Topic Merchandise Everywhere

We human beings are fascinating creatures. We absolutely love consistency in our daily lives, but we also occasionally find ourselves being eager for change in our daily lives. That’s especially true as we get older and think about all the other parts of the world we have yet to experience. Who has time to stick to the familiar when there’s so much more to explore out there in this big wide world of ours? Why, the idea of settling for the routine can be more frightening than any ghost or ghoul.

That the central crux of The Nightmare Before Christmas, one of my favorite features that has way, way more on its mind than the mounds of Hot Topic merchandise might indicate. In The Nightmare Before Christmas, the primary setting for much of the films plot is Halloween Town, a location that lives for frights and thrills. This is where the films protagonist Jack Skellington, calls home, but as the film opens, he’s having some unusual thoughts. The idea of spending yet another year just being the Pumpkin King in his town is a terrifying proposition to him. He craves change, a break from what he has become. Sure, it brings him fame and adoration, but those things ring hollow for him now after all these years of doing the same thing over and over again.

Jacks not the only one looking for a chnge though; enter Sally (who I didn't realize lacked a last name until I started writing this piece), who similarly is looking from a break from her life. Unlike Jack, her predicament involves being relentlessly controlled by a mad scientist, so change here feels not only natural, but essential. Still, both characters desire to break free of the shackles of conventional every day life leads them to hoping for more. For Jack, the source of leaving behind the life he's accustomed to comes in the form of Christmas, a holiday previously unknown to him that he decides to take over. With his decision to control Christmas, everyone's lives begin to change, including Sandy Claws. Though he too has a distinct pattern in his life, Sandy is more comfortable with the life he has, and is terrified when the holiday that makes up his existence is taken from him.

Like some of the best pieces of cinema, The Nightmare Before Christmas manages to make use of very realistic emotions in a visually and narratively striking environment. For the denizens of Halloweentown, who make up the majority of the supporting, change in their normal lives is far from necessary, but it is in the films main characters like Jack that we see the common human urge to break free from the constrains of consistency. Although his attempt to change up his life results in a traumatic Christmas, it's still a venture that resonates due to how often all of us wonder what else we can do with the one life we're given.

Our constant flip-flopping between loving consistent and despising it may make us human beings odd creatures, but at least one of our biggest holidays, Christmas, regains normalcy by the end of the film. As the motion picture concludes, Jack and Sally share a tender moment of peace. The two characters remind us all that it's perfectly natural to be scared of falling into banality in our lives, but to always remember we're not the only ones who have that fear.