Suburbia in Edward Scissorhands Movie Essay Sample

In Tim Burton’s film Edward Scissorhands, whose target audience is young children, the setting of bright, colorful suburbia is much more likely to appeal to them than the gothic horror aesthetic of Edward’s mansion. Suburbia is already this vivid and cheerful place. When Edward arrives, he adds a more whimsical touch to it with his dinosaur-shaped hedges and other wonderful creations that he produces with his scissor hands. Children already have highly imaginative minds and films that reflect that are much more entertaining to their short attention spans. Now, why is gothic horror less appealing? Doesn’t it at its core contain the same sort of otherworldly theme that suburbia has post, Edward? Yes and no. Both ideas at their core are very similar but as they grow, they move further apart. 

Edward’s mansion contains almost no other shades or colors than black, creepy gargoyles, always present thunder and lightning, and ominous shadows and cobwebs giving you the feeling of never knowing what might be around the corner. Multiple much scarier scenes than what is the average happen in the mansion like Jim’s death. First, was the very aggressive fight between him and Edward which would frighten most children away. Then is the scene when Edward stabs him and blood starts pouring out which heralds Jim’s fall from the fifth story window and his death. The camera cuts to a high-angle shot so we can see all the blood that has poured from his chest. This scene would not be very appealing to a young child. On top of that is the already seemingly haunted past of the mansion with the inventor’s death, so all that put together doesn’t make the pretty picture that kids like to see.

Children like calm and simplicity. If anything is going to be scary it shouldn’t be confrontational or too in-your-face which is exactly what Edward Scissorhands is. Unlike the mansion, suburbia is consistent. It is a cookie-cutter village, all the houses and cars are the same make and color scheme, pastel blue, pink, yellow, green or purple. All houses are at least two meters away from each other and have no front fences and a garage on the right-hand side, giving the audience; in this case children a sense of predictability of which they desire. 

Suburbia allows children to view the fantastical parts of the movie without being scared, ergo it is considerably more attractive to child viewers of Edward Scissorhands than the gothic, horror-esque mansion in which Edward and the inventor used to reside.