The Best Tim Burton Movies

Summary

• Beetlejuice’s cultural impact is enduring, showcasing Tim Burton’s unique mix of shock and humor.
• Miss Peregrine’s needed to adapt in style, diverting from his usual but still delivers fantastic visuals.
• Sweeney Todd exemplifies Burton’s unique vision, turning a classic tale into a stylish gothic masterpiece.

For lovers of all things dark, dreary and delightfully contrary, Tim Burton is a national treasure. The legendary director deserves a great deal of credit for popularizing the goth subculture in mainstream media. With a career spanning four decades, Tim Burton has made a slew of entertaining films that are instantly recognizable by their visual style: Burton-esque.

Best-known for his creepy-cute films that are equal parts shocking and giggle-inducing, Tim Burton has nevertheless dipped his toes into other genres at times to prove he’s not a one-trick pony. He also tends to use the same stable of actors for multiple projects, thereby tying them to goth culture as well.

8

Beetlejuice

1988

Beetlejuice’s cultural legacy almost outstrips the film’s actual fanbase. Even if you haven’t seen Beetlejuice, you likely know what’ll happen if you say his name three times. Despite being decades old at this point, the film nevertheless feels fresh and contemporary in its humour.

Michael Keaton steals the show with his performance as the wayward bio-exorcist. The film leans heavily on shock humour, the kind that its gross central character himself would find funny. Yet it ends on a note as heartwarming as any family-friendly Lifetime movie.

7

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

2016

The mid-2010s demanded a certain reinvention from Tim Burton: the age’s newfound emphasis on irony and cynicism meant his previous works played it too straight for modern audiences. Burton successfully styled himself as a modern filmmaker with Miss Peregrine’s Home For Pecular Children, a coming-of-age story filled with fantastic visuals.

Eva Green plays the titular character with unabashed glee, while Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell give the film heart. Though the film feels like it’s trying to compete with Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro at times, and coming up short, it still leaves you wishing for a sequel by the end.

6

Batman

1989

The billing of this film alone shows that Tim Burton understood what other creators later realized: the Joker is the most compelling character in the Batman universe, and the protagonist is simply his foil. Jack Nicholson is billed as the Joker before Michael Keaton as Batman; both turn in exemplary performances.

This 1989 rendition of the classic story respects its audience’s intelligence. Things are shown rather than explained, giving you constant crumbs of realization. This makes it compelling on a level that movies that telegraph their plot twists aren’t.

5

Dark Shadows

2012

It might seem like an odd choice to put one of Burton’s worst-reviewed films on this list, but hear us out. Dark Shadows did not do well at the box office and fell just short of being savaged by critics, but the film isn’t meant for general audiences. It’s meant for Tim Burton fans, for whom the star-studded cast is full of recognizable faces – including Sir Christopher Lee’s final Burton cameo. This is close to being Tim Burton’s take on The Expendables.

One of the best moments in the film is when Alice Cooper performs a concert as himself. For Tim Burton fans this is more memorable than his appearance in Wayne’s World. Sure, it’s a bit creepy to see the gothic rockstar made up like he’s 50 years younger, but much like Burton getting to adapt Dark Shadows rather than the Addams Family, it’s a case of having fun with what you’ve got.

4

Mars Attacks

1996

Mars Attacks is a B-movie competing with a B-movie: it puts Independence Day to shame with its degree of shlock. Yet its crass humour in 1996 is exactly what makes it so much fun to watch now. It is darkly funny and satirical, unafraid to poke fun at bureaucracy and military jingoism.

The aliens are well-designed and brought to jittery life by Industrial Light & Magic. Danny Elfman worked on the film’s score, complementing its parodic take on alien movies. Mars Attacks didn’t perform well at the box office or with critics, but makes for delightful home viewing.

3

Alice In Wonderland

2010

It’s clear from just a cursory reading that Alice In Wonderland is a gothic story under a fairytale sheen. Its reimaginings often lean heavily into the darker themes contained: even the 1950s Disney rendition was presented like an acid trip on celluloid. American McGee’s video game iterations of Alice were appropriately gothic as well.

Tim Burton’s version is one of the best versions of Alice’s story. It makes the main character a proactive heroine rather than a helpless observer, and turns the tale into one of self-actualization. It’s no coincidence that Wonderland is often seen as an allegory for mental health in media: Tim Burton’s version encourages us to protect our own Wonderland too.

2

Corpse Bride

2005

The Nightmare Before Christmas may be the more popular movie, but Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is his greatest stop-motion triumph. The film functions on a musical and aesthetic level that simply outstrips the director’s other stop-motion work, including 2012’s Frankenweenie.

Not only that, but Corpse Bride is a story steeped in pathos and wistfulness. It’s funny, sad and at times resigned, and features an ending that’s equal parts satisfying and ghastly. Truly a goth movie to its core, and an effective first public showcase for the stop-motion skills of Laika.

1

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

2007

Sweeney Todd is unique and unmatched: few slasher movies are as stylish or elegant as this one. Unabashed in its toe-curling violence, Sweeney Todd nevertheless has finesse. The musical performances are solid: Johnny Depp’s rock-oriented vocals act as the perfect character-appropriate contrast to Alan Rickman’s more classical tones.

Tim Burton’s trademark aesthetic makes this film a much bigger triumph than the pulp novel and stage play it’s based on. The story is finally realized in full through the gothic director’s vision. When Johnny Depp’s character equates drops of blood to rubies, it’s Tim Burton’s visual style that makes it believable.