A Totally Scientific, Not at All Subjective End to the Debate: Is “The Nightmare Before Christmas” a Halloween Movie?

by Maria Russinovich

I love Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday because we all get to pretend we’re someone we’re not, eat candy like it’s nobody’s business, and watch movies from the best genre: horror! *ooh ahh.*

I’ve always loved horror movies, especially any film that Tim Burton creates. We all know “Coraline” to be an exceptionally scary PG rated movie, but we can’t forget about Burton’s classic films like “Corpse Bride”, “Edward Scissorhands” and of course, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (further referenced to as “TNBC”).

The plot of “TNBC” revolves around the (forced) combination of Halloween and Christmas. But this combination of two nationally beloved holidays has left viewers quarreling since 1993: is “TNBC” really a Halloween movie?

I’ve been missing all of the Jack Skellington look-alikes that skulk the corners of Kogod and SIS, so I have taken it upon myself to end the debate about which season belongs to him. To do so, I will be using a series of categories that are super scientific and totally not just off the top of my head.

And because I’m a SOC major who failed Econ three times, each category will have the possibility to earn TNBC just one point towards being a Halloween movie. The easier the math, the less chance I’ll have to muck up my own arbitrary points system. So, here we go:

The categories:

Release Date: We all know that THE Halloween movie is John Carpenter’s 1978 smash hit “Halloween”. I checked to see when it was released, and what do you know, it was released on October 25! This sets the gold standard, because if a true Halloween movie wasn’t released in October — was it even a Halloween movie? (Maybe I’m just used to Monstober on The Disney Channel…)
Location: Every good Halloween movie takes place in a small, picturesque “all-American” town where nothing bad ever happens and then BAM, an evil psycho murderer comes to town. Look at Wes Craven’s 1996 “Scream”, set in sunny Woodsboro, California. Just some fun teens hanging out, being teens and then oops! Drew Barrymore is dead! Well, just her character, thankfully.
Gore: Wait! Yes, I know: not every great horror or Halloween film has gore in it! Witchy classic “Hocus Pocus” has no gore, unlike another Craven classic, “Nightmare on Elm Street” where Freddy Kruger literally has knives in his gloves. Talk about a true slasher! I’ll meet you in the middle with the majority of Halloween movies: I’m going to be looking for some gore.
Iconic Soundtrack: It seems that almost every major Halloween film has at least one song that, if anyone heard the song, they would know exactly which movie it came from. Every time I listen to the main theme from “The Exorcist”, I feel like I’ve never been more creeped out in my life.
One-Liner: Similarly to the soundtrack category, many Halloween hits have easily identifiable one-liners. Think “Here’s Johnny!” from the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film, “The Shining”.
Halloween Time: A lot of horror movies don’t actually take place on or around Halloween! I like to think that this makes them even better, because a good scare could be right around the corner at any time of year. But some of the most iconic and truly Halloween movies take place on Halloween, much like the childhood classic “Halloweentown” which… literally has the name Halloween in it.

The breakdown:

Release date: To my surprise, “TNBC” was released on October 13, 1993! This puts it right in the Halloween time frame, and while I was upset to learn that it was not a Friday the 13th release, it was the same day that Tiffany Trump was born, so that’s gotta be an additional spooky fact, right? Because “TNBC” was released around spooky time, it gets its first point!

Location: This one gets a bit trickier, because “TNBC” occurs in three places: Halloween Town, Christmas Town and the human world, I guess? Let’s break it down by each place Jack Skellington visits. First, we have Halloween Town. I’m going to have to take off points for “picturesque” because… eew. Remember how scared Santa was to be in Halloween Town? It’s definitely not an ideal place to live unless you’re, well, a monster. Christmas Town isn’t ideal either. Of course, it sounds nice to live there, but everything is TINY (elf-sized) and it appears you have to work around the clock at Santa’s workshop in order to live there. Labor laws who? Couldn’t be me. Finally, I give “TNBC” a half-point for the human “world” because it seems like it’s a small, quaint town that just happened to be the victim of Jack’s overexcitement.

Gore: Yes, “TNBC” is rated PG but I mean have you SEEN some of the creatures living in Halloween Town?! The Boogeyman getting ripped apart and dissolving into bugs and maggots was vile, along with Sally just casually ripping off her limbs and then sewing them back on again like it’s no big deal. Additionally, all of the citizens of Halloween Town are there because they died, and it’s pretty interesting if you look up how they died, and how that’s portrayed in their physical character. I digress. I’ll give “TNBC” one point for gore.

Soundtrack: I feel like this next one’s a no-brainer. I’m a huge Danny Elfman stan, and he absolutely knocked it out of the park. I mean, we’ve got “This is Halloween,” “Jack’s Lament,” “What’s This?,” and so many more incredible songs. Elfman and Burton have worked together on “Edward Scissorhands”, “TNBC”, “Corpse Bride”, “Beetlejuice”… dare I go on? If I could give more than one point, I would. Definitely a point and an A+ from me.

One-liners: While “TNBC” absolutely killed it in regard to music, sadly they fell flat when it came to iconic one-liners. I attribute this to the film having so many songs that people can belt from memory that actual non-singing lines were less memorable. Still, I can’t give a point because honestly, I can’t remember any lines except for every line Zero had, which was none… but he’s just so cute I couldn't not include him.

Halloween time: Does “TNBC” take place during Halloween time? Here’s a hint: read the title of the film again. I know, shocking! However, it’s almost forgivable because the movie kicks off right after Halloween, and all of the citizens of Halloween Town are celebrating yet another successful frightful October 31st. Still, I can’t give “TNBC” a point because the main premise of the movie is that it happens after Halloween, and during Christmas. Boo hoo. So sad.

The final count… up:

Okay, now for what we’ve all been waiting for… the final tabulations. “TNBC” got one point for being released near Halloween, half a point for spending 7 minutes and 18 seconds in the human world (yes, I counted), one point for gore and one point for soundtrack. This leaves us with 3.5 points out of 6 possible…

“TNBC” officially barely scrapes by as a Halloween movie, but I know for CERTAIN that it’s not a Christmas movie. Oh, and Happy Halloween!