GOOD, CLEAN SCARE: MATINEE, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Some critics thought that while Dante and writer Charlie Haas (who cameos as a teacher) captured the monster movies, should have junked the coming-of-age story. It's true MANT is a dead-on parody of the old-style horror movies (and Dante fills it with B-movie veterans, and Dante veterans, like Kevin McCarthy and William Schallert), with cheesy effects, cheesy dialogue, and the types of gimmicks Castle used (like shocks in the seat). Dante even throws in THE SHOOK-UP SHOPPING CART, which is a parody of the type of "wholesome" live-action movies Disney was making at the time. But I think the coming-of-age story works well. Gene isn't your stereotypical nerd, but a decent kid, and his adoration of horror movies is seen as being normal. And while Dante and Haas like their leads, they're not afraid to gently poke fun of them either (Sherry, for example, is a snob). And the love stories aren't played out too cheesily (except, admittedly, when Gene and Sandra think the world actually is going to end).
The performances go a long way towards making this work. Goodman, of course, is entirely in his element here. He captures Woolsey's bluster perfectly (as when, on-screen, he quickly flashes "scientific journals" that back the science in his movie), and the mind of someone constantly searching for a gimmick. Yet he genuinely loves and believes what he's doing (as when he tells Gene about the appeal of scary movies). The underused Cathy Moriarty also gets a good role here as Ruth, Woolsey's sardonic but understanding girlfriend, as well as his leading lady (she's the ingenue in MANT). Fenton is awkward but winning as Gene. And Villemaire is very funny as Starkweather (his name, of course, being a reference to Charlie Starkweather, the infamous murderer of the 50's). Martin never did comedies after this, and for the life of me, I can't understand why; she's perfect as someone sexy, full of themselves, and a little intimidating. In general, MATINEE does a good job showing what the kid in all of us was once like.
Though THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS was directed by Selick, it has Tim Burton's stamp all over it. He exec-produced it, and it came from a poem he wrote as a Disney animator (his collaborator Caroline Wilson adapted it). And it was likely his decision to use stop-motion animation instead of more traditional animation to tell his macabre but sweet tale.
Jack Skellington
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