Coraline (animation)/Nightmare Fuel




 * Adults actually find this book (and film) scarier than kids do, with the unsettling feeling of the Other World just not being quite right giving way to.
 * That and the theme of
 * "...so I fixed him!"
 * Coraline's interaction with Other Bobinsky near the end of the film.

"Other Mother: DON'T LEAVE ME, DON'T LEAVE! I'LL DIE...I'LL DIE WITHOUT YOOOUUUU!""
 * The
 * Coraline escaping the Other Mother...

"She spied on our lives, through the little doll's eyes. And saw that we weren't happy. So she lured us away, with treasures and treats, and games to play. Gave all that we asked, yet we still wanted more. So we let her sew the buttons. She said she loved us...but she locked us up here. And ate up our lives."
 * Following that we have the shot of the door to the Other World getting closer and closer to the real world before Coraline slams the door on the other world finally.
 * During the climax of the film, Coraline struggles to fight off . The camera zooms back to the house, which shows the door to the otherworld banging loudly and glowing ominously...
 * I could never shake off the feeling that the Other Mother was directly on the other side. Like right there, ready to eat Coraline the instant she got her hand on her.
 * It doesn't help that after they . If you listen closely, you can hear the Other Mother whispering 'No'.
 * What happened to the three ghost children.

""You'll all get what you deserveses,"
 * The little ghost children in GENERAL (except for at the end, where they are kind of cute). Seriously, think about it - DEAD CHILDREN, talking about the horrors of the Other World in a distinguishably childlike way, looking like they just crawled right out of the Uncanny Valley, all with buttons in their eyes.
 * The Other Mother, in the book, swears on her mother's grave. Coraline was surprised that her mother was dead. The Other Mother's reply? "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to climb out, I put her back."
 * Fridge Logic makes this even worse. It's clear that the Other Mother went without eating for about sixty years, give or take, so surely her mother would take at least that long to die. In a coffin. Alone. Unable to do anything.
 * In the audiobook, the rats' 'song' is heard as a breathy, hissing chant with little semblance of a tune. It comes right the hell out of nowhere and is arguably the creepiest part of the whole story. And the book is narrated by the author so you know this is the way the song was meant. And then in a later chapter it happens again.
 * The lyrics of that song are terrifying, but this troper was really freaked out by the last two lines.

when we rise from underneath.""

"Coraline, you're tangible,
 * The (admittedly rather obscure) musical adaptation has a short little ditty called "The Greeting Song," which makes excellent and frightening use of Last-Second Word Swap.

Coraline, you're grand.

How we'd like to take you by the hand.

Coraline, you're nice and plump,

Coraline, you're sweet.

How we'd like to have you to... Greet."

"Sssorry...ssssooo sssorry...M-mother making meeeee...."
 * When the Other Wybie expresses his disapproval through a frown instead of smiling like he's supposed to, the Other Mother sews his lips into a perma-grin. The stitches are cut, but not before we see what the Joker might have looked like as a child.
 * When Coraline discovers the remains of the other Wybie.
 * "He pulled a loooong face... and mother didn't like that. Not one bit."
 * The Other Father's deterioration and death.

"Makin' up a song about Coraline
 * The Other Mother's real form and real real form.
 * That whole thing of sewing buttons onto eyes.
 * Neil Gaiman holding the buttons over his eyes and smiling in this video.
 * The Other Father's song about Coraline, which eerily foreshadows the whole thing about sewing buttons onto eyes.

She's a peach, she's a doll, she's a pal of mine

She's as cute as a button in the eyes of everyone who's ever laid their eyes on Coraline

When she comes around exploring

Mom and I will never ever make it boring

Our eyes will be on Coraline!"

"Thief!! GIVE IT BACK!"
 * Oh, there is a crap load of foreshadowing in that song without the button thing; for instance
 * "I'll give you to the count of three. One... two... THREEEEE!".
 * Coraline suddenly getting grabbed by the Other Spink and Forcible monster.

""Mothers don't eat daughters...""
 * Some of the pictures in the novel - especially the picture of the Other Mother with a bug in her mouth. It just doesn't look right.
 * The making of the puppet-things themselves here. *shudder*
 * The scene after Coraline
 * If anything, the music during that scene can certainly scare the crap out of you, especially if you listen to it in the dark.
 * The cover of the book almost gave this troper a heart attack when she saw it in fifth grade. The girl is evidently Coraline (or a mirror reflection of her) -- her body looks mostly normal, but her neck is huge and very awkward and her face looks like it had buttons sewn onto them once, then removed, leaving big hollows where they once were.
 * If you look at it from a Freudian sense Coraline has a lot of No Yay subtext with the Other Mother. And then there's the fact that the Other Mother is a creepy Yandere towards Coraline.