Halloween is a great time for movies — scary, creepy horror flicks are almost always on TV and in theaters, and Tim Burton is the poster child for these spooky movies.

Perhaps one of his best known films, “Edward Scissorhands” turns 16 this year. The movie marked the beginning of a great partnership between Burton and actor Johnny Depp, a partnership that, while great, has plateaued somewhat in recent years.

Starring Depp as the title character, Scissorhands starts with Edward shown as an incomplete creation by “the inventor,” played by all-time horror legend Vincent Price. The dying inventor succumbs to a heart attack, leaving a barely finished, but surprisingly competent Edward alone within the inventor’s shadowy mansion. Stumbling into the nearby, and conveniently located neighborhood, Ed is taken in by the beautiful Kim Boggs, played by Winona Ryder, and her family.

Fun Fact: Price is well known for his vocal talents in older horror flicks, but you’ve definitely heard his epic verbiage in the latter half of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Edward becomes a hit in the Boggs’ town, earning a reputation as a great hedge trimmer because of his, you know, scissor hands. This is hilarious, as each time Eddie cuts up a bush or two, the camera turns to his bewildered face, leaves and clippings flurrying from the shrubberies behind him. Then the camera turns and there’s a bush masterpiece, and soon there are dinosaur and elephant hedges all over the previously carbon-cut housing development.

This tongue-in-cheek style coupled with a Danny Elfman score helps Burton build his playful tone, which ultimately warms the audience to an otherwise gothic presentation of the title character. Edward is portrayed as a heartwarming character packaged in a zipper-heavy, black leather jumpsuit, who kindly yet clumsily wields comically large scissor hands.

There’s a bit throughout Scissorhands where Edward repeatedly cuts his own face with the scissors. The first few times it’s puppy-sad, but it eventually becomes a kind of dopey-funny, which draws a unique blend of sympathy and laughter from the audience.

Edward is a contradiction, a sore thumb among an otherwise pedestrian community. While his ghostly pale face seems to spook the neighbors, his innocence could not be more of a central focus for Depp and Burton.

He is a vulnerable, scared man in a world too big for his differences. As much as Edward Scissorhands is a fanatical piece about feeling alienated in a new place, it’s exploration of purpose is what sticks with the audience. This is Frankenstein’s odyssey, the creation coming to life, seeking and fulfilling a higher purpose, discovering self-knowledge along the way.

The innocent mood against a gloomy backdrop is what distinguishes this early ’90s classic from the modern big-budget hits from Depp and Burton.

So “Scissorhands” is a great movie, but I must allow myself to relieve some of the frustration I feel for the audacious Tim Burton. He has come a long way since his early ’90s fame for emotional drama pieces like Ed Wood, and now the lack of realism is almost disturbing.

And while I’m at it, Johnny Depp, too, while still suave, he will never be able to live down “The Lone Ranger” or “Pirates of the Caribbean” two through four.

Once a Tanto, four times a Sparrow, and you’ve got a cash hungry hippie.

But hey, it wasn’t always about the money. Johnny Depp used to don long hair and a longer pale face that screamed “I love Nirvana: Unplugged.” Man, was he vulnerable.

Oh Timmy — he’s imagined so much, taken on huge projects, kind of delivered on a few, and now he unfortunately tries and rehash his acclaimed feats from the ’90s. He brandishes his well-rehearsed fanaticism with goopy makeup and eccentric CGI — see: “Alice in Wonderland.”

Complacency — bravo.

Brian Hamlin is a junior communications and rhetorical studies major.  His column appears weekly in Pulp. He can be reached at brhamlin@syr.edu.

Published on October 30, 2016 at 10:20 pm