Tim Burton and the director who made him feel like he was “hallucinating”
Tim Burton is one of the few directors whose films are essentially a genre of their own. The unique mixtures of extravagant gothic visuals, quirky characters and wonderfully bittersweet combinations of love and darkness make his work seem like nothing else on the market.
Burton’s fingerprints are all over the movies he makes, and they are always better off as a result. Of course, some of his films have been much better than others, but if nothing else, Burton brings a unique flavour and stunning visual style to every film he makes.
Still, even a talent as singular and idiosyncratic as Burton has his influences, which he has discussed over the years. For example, old monster movies and Vincent Price’s filmography have heavily influenced the director. These influences were shown in his first two short films, Vincent and Frankenweenie, the latter of which Burton later remade as an animated feature.
Another key figure who has been important for Burton as a creator is Italian horror legend Mario Bava. In an interview with composer Danny Elfman, who has composed the music for nearly all of Burton’s projects, the filmmaker recalled watching Bava’s film Black Sunday at three in the morning. He said it was “like your subconscious, like a dream, almost like hallucinating”.
He further elaborated: “One of the movies that remain with me probably stronger than anything is Black Sunday… There’s a lot of old films where the vibe and the feeling is what it’s about… the feeling’s a mixture of eroticism, of sex, of horror and starkness of image, and to me, that is more real than what most people would consider realism in films.”
When Burton was creating his Gothic horror cult classic Sleepy Hollow, he drew on Black Sunday for inspiration, and he would later feature in the documentary Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre, in which he discussed his love of Bava’s work.
Interestingly, there’s a very strong argument to be made that, in today’s cinematic landscape, Burton himself is the master of the macabre, so perhaps that makes him the closest thing there’s ever been to an heir to Bava. If nothing else, Burton, who’s definitely a more accessible filmmaker than Bava was, has brought the macabre into the mainstream and made it profitable, so that’s certainly a great achievement.
