A Surprising Halloween Favorite
Guest Blog by C. M. Fergason author of The Witch's Child.
Sometimes you get yourself in a little bit of a rut. For every Halloween, I watch a ton of Halloween movies. Mostly made for children. I mean, I have the fear tolerance of a six-year-old. But I love a theme, just love it. This year, I decided to try to find Halloween themed movies that I hadn’t seen before. There’s a ton of them out there, especially the looser you go with the definition of a Halloween movie. (Fun fact: Gremlins is touted as a Halloween movie, but it’s based around Christmas, with no mention of Halloween at all. I think that disqualifies it as a Halloween movie, but that’s just my opinion.)
Anyway, I’ve seen several new movies that are being added to my Halloween roster, but one stood out to me really strongly this year, and surprisingly, it’s ParaNorman. When the movie first came out, I didn’t want to watch it. I don’t know if it was because of the way it was advertised, or because I was sick of the whole claymation thing, or because it was 2012 and I was in the midst of hating everything that year, but I didn’t have any interest in it at the time. But this year, with trying something new, I gave it a shot. And I’m so glad I did.
First of all, I was really surprised by how good this movie was. What I expected was just a ton of dumb fart jokes and a movie that tried too hard to be funny, but that wasn’t what I got. I started out watching it while I was doing something else, and I wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on. But at a certain point, I was so immersed in the movie that I wasn’t paying attention to anything else.
This next part contains spoilers, so I know the movie came out nine years ago, but if you haven’t watched it and don’t want it spoiled, don’t read the next couple sections.
What I love about it: I love this movie for a lot of reasons. I love that the zombies weren’t out to kill and eat everyone. Obviously the movie would have been very different if they had been. But the point of the curse that brought them back was that the zombies themselves were being punished, not the world as a whole. It wouldn’t have made sense for them to be violent. So that was really interesting, to begin with. I like how the backstory was crafted, how it wasn’t revealed until later in the movie that obviously the witch wasn’t an old crone. It was literally heartbreaking for me when they showed Aggie on trial, and maybe that’s just because I’m a mom. I love the use of the storybook. I love how Norman sympathizes with Aggie about how hurt she is but that doesn’t stop him from telling her she’s being a bully. I just can’t stand how sad this movie is to me, and how emotional I got over it. And obviously, the line that packed the most punch was when Aggie said, “What about the people that hurt you? Don’t you want to make them suffer?” And Norman replied, “Sure, but what good would that do?” Maybe I’m a baby, but I just love it so much. And of course I love Neil, who’s so sweet and brave and always looking out for others. Of course, you can’t talk about this movie without mentioning the subverted cheerleader/muscle guy trope. Love that.
What I don’t love about it: Nothing. No, really, though, there’s not much I don’t like. I think Norman’s father’s a huge jerk and I can’t like him. I thought there was a very quick change in how his sister suddenly decided to support him, and that felt a little rushed and forced. There was a scene where the zombie was trying to get into the van the people were driving that I feel could have been shorter, especially since it doesn’t really make sense for the zombie to be after them like that. I’m nitpicking, but to be honest, there’s not a ton I don’t like about this movie.
So anyway, if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch ParaNorman. If you have seen it but not this season, go watch ParaNorman. Go on. Do it.