Before Watching:
Since it’s October and my favorite holiday is right around the corner, I’ve decided to do a movie review that goes with the spirit of Halloween! No, this isn’t a new release, I’m actually facing an old fear of mine and watching the animated movie, Coraline. Released in 2009, I think the last (and only) time I watched this movie was when I was in the 4th or 5th grade. To be honest, I was scared sh*tless and I didn’t even finish it. What was supposed to be a family movie night ended with me next to my mother in the safety of my parent’s bed. I tried to sleep away the images of button-eyed people, but I fear they never truly left. It was then that I declared I would never watch this movie again, but here I am a sophomore in college ready (kind of) to see how scary this movie really is.
While watching:
While home for the weekend I figured it was as good a time as ever to finally do it. I sat down in a recliner and turned Netflix on. Low and behold, there it was, Coraline. My thumb hovered over the ‘play’ button. I took a deep breath, cringed a little and pressed down. Right from the start, the button eyes are on the screen. There is the lonely little girl that just wanted to be seen by her parents as something other than a waste of time. The one who would find a different dimension with parents that ‘loved’ her and ‘cared’ for her, parents that only asked for one thing in return, to have buttons sewn in place of her eyeballs… Thankfully, my dog came to the rescue and snuggled with me under a fuzzy blanket. She made watching this PG-rated movie more bearable.
My goal for watching this movie was to just finish it. I wanted to get past the part I ran away from so many years ago. If you’ve ever seen the movie, it’s where Coraline and the “other mother” are in a spider web. Coraline is trying to escape while the ‘mother’ is trying to grab her. Let me tell you, I got to that part, and to my surprise, this scene lasted all about a minute if not shorter. I really felt like a wimp after seeing how short it was.
After watching:
All in all, my final thoughts on this viewing are;
1) Decent storyline and fun animations, the creators did a nice job
2) Probably younger kids who typically watch PG movies shouldn’t see this quite yet
3) No, it’s not as scary as I had thought it was
4) I’m glad I finally finished the movie
5) I doubt I will watch this movie again (maybe in another 9 years)