Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, a world populated by monsters, ghosts, witches, vampires, and other creatures dedicated to making Halloween frightening year after year.
Jack is very good at his job. He’s also tired of it.
After wandering away from Halloween Town, Jack discovers a group of mysterious doors leading to other holiday worlds. One takes him to Christmas Town, where snow, colourful decorations, presents, and holiday cheer are completely unlike anything he knows.
Fascinated by what he has found, Jack returns home determined to understand Christmas. His research doesn’t go particularly well, so he eventually decides that Halloween Town should take over the holiday itself.
The residents enthusiastically get to work. Unfortunately, their understanding of Christmas still involves shrunken heads, carnivorous toys, skeletal reindeer, and gifts that would probably benefit from warning labels.
Meanwhile, Sally, a rag doll created by Dr. Finkelstein, becomes increasingly worried about Jack’s plans. When Jack has Santa Claus kidnapped so he can take his place on Christmas Eve, Sally tries to prevent the celebration from becoming a disaster.
Directed by Henry Selick from a story and characters by Tim Burton, The Nightmare Before Christmas uses stop-motion animation to bring Halloween Town and its residents to life. Chris Sarandon voices Jack’s dialogue, with Danny Elfman providing his singing voice, while Catherine O’Hara voices Sally and Ken Page voices Oogie Boogie.
The film combines fantasy, musical storytelling, romance, Halloween imagery, and dark comedy as Jack searches for something beyond the role he has played for years.
Why The Nightmare Before Christmas Is on Love of Gothic
The Nightmare Before Christmas has become closely associated with gothic and alternative culture through its characters, visual design, music, and celebration of Halloween.
Halloween Town is populated by skeletons, ghosts, vampires, witches, monsters, corpses, and other creatures drawn from classic horror traditions. Graveyards, crooked architecture, black clothing, skeletal imagery, and Burton’s distinctive character designs shape nearly every part of its world.
Jack and Sally have also become enduring gothic pop culture icons. Combined with its stop-motion style, dark fantasy, Danny Elfman’s music, and playful treatment of the macabre, The Nightmare Before Christmas has an obvious place on Love of Gothic.