Day 28: 31 Days of Horror: Coraline

If you have seen Coraline and you claim to not have been freaked out, I don't believe you. This movie is so messed up. I am going to have to go out and get Neil Gaiman's graphic novel that this film is based on. Coraline is about a young girl from Michigan who has just moved to a new town. She moves into a strange house that has some other interesting people living in the same complex. Her parents seem to ignore her and find her a nuisance. She meets a boy named Wybie, who completely annoys her. She feels utterly alone and misses her friends.

One day, her dad gives her the skeleton key to the house, so that she can investigate it while also leaving him and his wife alone. During her investigation, she finds a door leading to a different world, but within the same house. This other world contains her "other" mother. Her other mother seems to be a lot more caring towards her and tries to make her feel like she is loved. She is introduced to the neighbors, who seem to be a lot more amazing than her real neighbors do. She is given homemade meals that are delicious. She is treated like a princess.

Of course, Coraline loves this other world because she is actually recognized. She can't wait to go back to it. After a few visits though, Coraline realizes that something just isn't right. Maybe it has something to do with the unrealistic perfection of everything or maybe it has to do with the other mother's insistence that she have her eyes taken out and replaced with buttons. Maybe it's everything with the other world. It isn't until the real world is taken away from her that Coraline realizes that her real life wasn't so bad after all. Will she be able to get back to the real world or will she be forced to stay in the other world?

I didn't see this film when it was in theaters, although I wanted to because I loved James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas from Henry Selick. I did, however, end up buying this around the time I had some wisdom teeth removed. They messed up on my surgery, so I was put on pain medication for a while. I watched this film in 3D at this point and I was scared out of my mind, but I loved it. The stop motion animation is spectacular. I find it amazing that people can pull something like this off because it's so detailed oriented and time consuming. The story is creepy, especially how it all plays out. It's definitely worth watching.