For this project of the definitive ranked list of Horror/Thrillers I’ve had to watch a lot of movies, ranging from generic to ones that questionably fit the wide scope of the project. I’m especially delighted by films that stretch the genre definition in a good way, and “gateway horror” has a number of fine examples. The most famous is The Nightmare Before Christmas, also directed by Henry Selick. Coraline is a bit darker, with more of an edge.
The plot doesn’t seem too bad on paper. A young girl on a quest to save her family and destroy an evil entity. The combination of scary situations and morbid imagery set this apart. In its effective execution, it’s more dreadful than those generic Horror films. Coraline herself is nearly killed multiple times throughout the movie while she tries to save her parents. She’s nearly cut in half, dragged to the abyss, and almost forced to have her soul eaten by an ancient entity that’s been compared to Pennywise.
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