Edward Scissorhands | Burtons Best Outsider

The gothic cinematic landscape has been explored in a variety of ways over the last thirty years with films like Del Toro’s Crimson Peak (2015) and Fleming’s 90s cult classic The Craft (1995), but no singular director has helmed such a unified and recognisable aesthetic and made it another tool in their auteurism belt like Tim Burton.

With countless classics throughout the years,  Burton’s style and characters have become iconic largely to his way of taking his ideas and blending them with scripts that speak to him on a personal level. Beetlejuice, for example, feels uniquely Burtonesque despite not being written by him.  He is known to write many outsider characters; those who don't seem to fit into the well-established society around them and have expectations thrust upon them. Burton is drawn to outsiders, that much is clear. His Batman films have a fascination around the villains– Catwoman and The Penguin are outcasts who aren’t respected as a colleague or as a family member respectively, to the point of cracking. Lydia Deetz is not heard by her family and clearly sees herself as different, or as she puts it, “strange and unusual”(though this is more in the vein of teen angst and seeing the paranormal than it is inciting city-wide vengeance.) Even Burton’s Dumbo remake has the titular character’s “freak” status, which seems to be why he took on the role of director for that film. In my opinion, none of these characters can match what I see as Burton's ultimate outsider character: Edward Scissorhands.

Edward Scissorhands is one of Burton’s more simpler films, but by no means lacking in any depth or passion. From Danny Elfman’s angelic and tear-jerking parts of the score mixed with its overtly Elfman fast-paced elements, to the somber performances from Depp and Weist, this fairytale fantasy world feels more grounded despite the fantastical elements of the creation of Edward himself. 

Edward is a character very close to Burton’s heart; someone who he sketched for years, starting when he was a teenager. Burton grew up in sunny Burbank, California and never felt like he fit in. He was always drawing and coming up with stories. When conceiving Scissorhands in the late 80s, Burton wrote a character who lives high up in an abandoned castle, never to interact with the local pastel-coloured town below, full of its jolly citizens who are arguably more odd than Edward himself.  His whole design screams outcast: a gaunt, pale face covered with scars, hair that hasn’t been attended to in years, an outfit (beautifully made by Colleen Atwood) of discarded leather belts, mismatched boots, and numerous sizes and lengths of scissors for fingers, just to be used as a tool by a majority of the townspeople. Edward is respected no more than a bush trimmer, a pair of scissors or a lockpick.

Throughout the film Edward is trying his hardest to form connections, but his lack of communication and limited articulation with his scissorhands leaves him at the mercy of being manipulated and coerced into being a local celebrity. His heart that was placed inside him by his creator yearns for something more than what he has. He yearns for genuine love and attraction from another person– that being Kim, played by Winona Ryder.

Edward Scissorhands has a depressing end for a Burton film, especially one that centres around Christmastime, both of which normally have an uplifting end. In a series of misunderstandings, Edward is eventually chased out by the townspeople, torches and all, in a clear Frankenstein parallel (in every way conceivable) all the way back to his castle, where Kim fakes his death. Edward has to live the rest of his indeterminate lifetime without her, or any contact from anyone. Just like his crescent moon belt, Edward could never be fully formed, never accepted as a human. He was so close to having real hands and being welcomed into society, but he was too different and unique to ever be fully embraced.

As the Christmas period approaches, we should remember Burton’s beautiful stories and characters that have  stood the test of time over the last thirty years. While Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas has finally gotten its due and slow build-up in pop culture, Edward Scissorhands is the more emotionally resonant and devastating Burton ending. Kim tells the story of Edward to her grandchild, probably from a child she had with her jock boyfriend Jim. An unfulfilled life, stunted by never getting a chance at a happy life  with the one she loved – while Edward, an ageless being, is locked away in his castle, never to speak to another soul again; only to send snow signals to the one he loves from afar.

Written by Michael Tasker | IG: @thegoldenecstasy | LB: Haelcim