I must confess that I don’t like horror movies very much. Often, I cannot fall asleep after watching one and I can conjure up the ghost’s/demon’s/devil’s/serial killer’s image in my mind’s eye. Urgh. I do enjoy Halloween and getting dressed up, and maybe getting scared at haunted houses, but I don’t enjoy horror movies.
So if you want something non-scary but still adhering to the spirit of Halloween, you should watch Paranorman.
Norman is a typical middle school boy who is, in a word, misunderstood. He can see ghosts but no one believes him. He is ostracised by bullies at school (Alvin, in particular) and his family members belittle him to no end. Norman is a loner and is always alone, until a classmate, Neil, tries to get close to him. What’s more, Norman realises that he has to be the one to stop a witch from destroying the whole town that he lives in because of a three hundred year old curse.
Spoilers below. But come on. This movie came out like, 6 years ago.
After rehearsing for a school play where Norman starts having visions, his distant uncle, Mr Prenderghast, tells him that he must prevent the witch from destroying the town. Norman refuses to believe him or associate with him, lest he be accused of being crazy again. However, Mr Prenderghast dies and his ghost instructs Norman to take the book from his corpse and this sets him off on a journey to save the town. Along the way, his friend, Neil, Neil’s brother, Mitch, and Norman’s sister Courtney all tag along and realise that Norman’s special gifts make him who he is.
The movie shows how the isolation and loneliness affect Norman — at the beginning of the movie, we see Norman talking to the air, but once the camera pans around, Norman is actually talking to ghosts. This is exceptionally beautiful but more importantly, depressing because it shows how he manages all by himself. He’s also seen doing most activities alone, such as watching a movie and going to the toilet, and from the way he walks, we know it’s because he doesn’t relish being alone; he’s used to it and he copes accordingly.
Norman’s biological family is portrayed as dysfunctional and abusive. His sister, Courtney, verbally abuses him and acts like she doesn’t want him around, while his father becomes enraged when Norman doesn’t act normal and embarrasses himself in front of nearly everyone while performing in a school play, causing the audience to believe that he is, indeed, crazy. The moment that hits like a punch to the gut is when Norman screams that he wishes he can’t see ghosts, with his father agreeing. This is a breath of fresh air because the abusive people in dysfunctional families are often the protagonist’s step- or adopted relatives, not their biological ones. (Coco only goes so far, only to sweep the family’s dysfunctional dynamic under the rug at the end, but that’s for another post.)
Moreover, the movie turns its head on what is considered a witch. There are definitely parallels to the Salem witch trials because many of the women accused of being a witch also didn’t fit in or behaved in a way that was unacceptable. Understanding Aggie’s torment, as well as his own, enables Norman to remove the curse that the witch has set upon the town. The witch isn’t a cliche–there’s no hooked nose or green skin. She’s just like Norman, a girl who can also talk to the dead. By knowing her past and that she was wrongfully executed, we gain the empathy that Norman has with her and that is the key to removing the curse.
While ParaNorman is inspired from the many things that go bump in the night, it turns its head on these tropes and shows us not to take anything at face value. Even the scariest of monsters are not as they seem and are more human than you think.
While people are curling up with The Ring or another cult classic like Friday the 13th, I always look forward to a film like this that gives the misfits a bit of hope. At the end of Paranorman, Norman has friends and a family that is willing to meet him halfway. At the end of the film, instead of watching a zombie flick alone, he’s with his family–and they finally choose to change their ways and accept him for who he is.