Edward Scissorhands Analysis

Edward Scissorhands is a film that isn't obviously gothic. Edward Scissorhands home up on the hill is typically gothic and matches his personal image. The scene in which 'Peg' the avon lady discovers him in his gothic home is so well done. It shows obvious contrast the little town down the hill. The interior and colours of the gothic castle also contrast with Pegs costume which is a happy, pastel, lavender shade. The use of pastel shades in the town is a direct contrast again with Edward Scissorhands black and white costume, pale face and jet black hair. The production crew found, in the words of the production designer, Bo Welch:

"a kind of generic, plain-wrap suburb, which we made even more characterless by painting all the houses in faded pastels, and reducing the window sizes to make it look a little more paranoid."

The atmosphere and mood of the film is different throughout. To begin with, during the credits, it is shown as a Gothic, dark and scary film because of the black and white detail, the music creates tension and mystery and the images of the castle and of Edward himself are all shown in a Gothic way. However, this is heavily contrasted with the pastel town and from then on it is sadly clear that he doesn't fit in with the suburban life.

The film itself differs from a classic horror film as it is solely focusing on the character to provide the Gothic element to the film. I personally feel that the horror actually comes from the people of the town because of the way they treat Edward. His only horrific quality is his scissors for hands and the crimes he commits with them are always innocent and by accident. The horror of the film is provided by the way he is treated and also the atmosphere of his home. Edward Scissorhands also falls in the romantic genre as it is primarily about him falling in love with the daughter 'Kim'. This aspect of the film can be compare to Beauty and The Beast as he is unable to consummate is love for 'Kim' because of his appearance. Other themes Burton acknowledged are that of self-discovery and isolation.

The music in the film also represents a lot about Edward Scissorhands as a character. The credits in the beginning are alongside a very Gothic, eerie and scary piece of music. This is used to create tension and evoke feelings of the unknown. The music throughout the film is very atmospheric and is clever conducted allowing for extremely tight parameters that help the score for the film tell the story by itself. The film also features three of Tom Jones’ songs (‘It’s not unusual’, ‘Delilah’ and ‘With these hands’) which have been highly criticised claiming that; “The Tom Jones songs are an unfortunate downside to the score; his voice and the style of the song may have been an attempt to mimic the 50's atmosphere of the film, but its tinny recording sound is quite irritating. Burton and Elfman would have been better served by having a sensitive vocalist provide a song version of Elfman's love theme.”

In my opinion the ending of Edward Scissorhands is sad but it adds to the affect of the film. If it had been a happy ending it would have been a typical fairytale essentially with the "beast winning the love of the beauty". The ending is still riddled with hope as they both live happily ever after just without each other.