The mismatched holiday classic, "The Nightmare Before Christmas", is now re-released in theaters (for the third year) in 3D!

Jack Skellington, the monarch of Halloween, bored with scares and screams, commands his subjects to help him take over the execution of Christmas. Not plot driven, Nightmare is a heady visual draught, a dream woven in images and moods. Roger Ebert praised the original release of the film, saying its creators "made a world here that is as completely new as the worlds we saw for the first time in such films as Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Star Wars." And indeed, the visuals are so unique that "Burtonesque" is now in the cinema lexicon. The new 3D element makes this phantasmal world even more immersive!

Burton has stated that inspiration came to him at a store changing out the Halloween merchandise for Christmas displays: the juxtaposition of ghouls and Santa—and the best images of the film are the ones mixing Christmas and Halloween, the delightful and the ghastly: a coffin shaped sleigh led by skeletal reindeer, Christmas lights strung about an electric chair, and in no other movie have I seen a character try and discover the true meaning of Christmas by dissecting a teddy bear.

This is what Burton does; he mixes horror and humor and somehow makes it innocent through his favorite medium, the misfit. These elements come together in one of my favorite scenes: Sally, an animated rag doll, makes ready to escape her abusive creator. Opening the window, she looks wistfully towards Jack's house, then jumps, crashing several stories below, her body breaking into pieces. Then, just as wistfully, the way a lovesick teenager might pick petals off a lily, she sews herself back together. A neat bit of dialogue-free storytelling. In any other movie, this would be a tragic scene—a teen suicide for unrequited love. Instead, Burton makes the scene sweet and he does so using the very element that makes it macabre: the fact that Sally is an undead doll.

After 15 years, the film has aged well, looking dated neither technically nor in style. Actually, pop culture has caught up to its sardonic and subversive tones. Disney originally released the film under their Touchstone Pictures division for fear that it was too dark for children. Lately, they have not been afraid to show "The Nightmare Before Christmas" under their banner.

The media is faster and more fickle than ever. However we also live in a time when canceled TV shows and sleeper films can find a second life, resurrected by the necromancy of cult fans and DVD sales. Step into a Spencer's or Hot Topic store — there is more Nightmare merchandise circulating than ever and a whole new generation of teenagers have made its cast of monsters into a misfit pantheon. Iconic images endure, and Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is teeming with them.

As the denizens of Halloween Town sing; "Life's no fun without a good scare!"

Joshua Doetsch

p.s.  Oh, You know it...our Killer-store has copies of "Nightmare Before Christmas" just dripping in anticipation for you! Just go to the Killer-DVD's section or click on the picture in the article above.