Classic Tim Burton Movies That Will Keep You in the Halloween Spirit All Year

Tim Burton at a ComicCon Panel in 2009, discussing "Alice in Wonderland" and other Films.
Photo by: Jasmin Hunter, via Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)

Do you have a case of the post-Halloween blues? Well there's no cure for that quite like enjoying some Tim Burton movies. They're macabre, they're fun, and they're classics 365 days a year - the perfect mix of Halloween humor and fun to pick you up after the post-Halloween blues.

Instead of giving you a list of all of the most well-known Burton flicks like "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Edward Scissorhands", we've put together a list of Burton pics that maybe aren't as well known, but are still worth a watch, so you can expand your repertoire of Burton-film knowledge and enjoyment.

While we'd hardly call any of these films "little known", they might not be the first ones to come to mind when you think of Tim Burton, so maybe you'll find something that's completely new (to you!) to check out this week!

• Dark Shadows (2012) - Dark Shadows is a lot of fun. It's a horror comedy based on a 1960s soap opera of the same name that has a cult-like fan following. The story follows the Collins family, who moves from Liverpool, England to Maine in the mid 1700s, and founds the town of Collinsport, where they build their grand estate.  The family ends up getting cursed, and Barnabas (played by Johnny Depp), ends up an immortal vampire. Flash forward a couple hundred years to the 1970s, and the story continues following the Collins' estate and family, and the strange, cursed history of the family in this dark comedy. If you're into dark humor, this is definitely a movie you'll want to check out.
  
  
  
  
  
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) - Who doesn't love a good murderous musical? Sweeney Todd had been an iconic stage production for many years before Burton turned it into a masterpiece on the silver screen. The story follows a scorned London barber who is on a murderous rampage after being sent to prison by a judge who was after his wife. The barber returns, changes his name to Sweeney Todd, and teams up with Mrs. Lovett, who uses the murdered bodies to bake delicious pies after Todd tosses them down a chute to her. This movie is funny, dark, and outrageously amusing, with people being baked into pies left and right.
  
  
  
  
  
• Batman Returns (1992) - The sequel to the 1989 film "Batman", this sequel is an awesome watch in its own right - in no small part due to Danny DeVito's epic performance as the iconic Batman-universe villain The Penguin. As you might have guessed, Tim Burton's macabre touch transforms a kooky, somewhat silly sounding villain into a fully fleshed out character that is creepy, scary, and absolutely iconic. This is a movie that you can watch 100 times, and still catch something new each go through, and it should definitely be on your Burton Marathon watch list.
  
  
  
  
• Frankenweenie (2012) - We love Frankenweenie. It's a stop motion film done completely in black & white, as a homage to the horror classic "Frankenstein", and this cute film is a classic in its own right. This full-length feature was released decades after Burton made a short film of the same name, and needless to say, we can't get enough of it. The story revolves around a young boy who's an aspiring scientist, who brings his pup back to life a-la-Frankenstein after he is tragically hit by a car. This dark but heartwarming story is definitely worth a watch, but dog lovers, beware, you will almost definitely tear up a little at this one.
  
  
  
  
  
• James and the Giant Peach (1996) - While this isn't exactly a horror movie, it's certainly dark. Based on the Roald Dahl novel of the same name, "James and the Giant Peach" is a pretty cool movie. It's visually stunning - a mix of live action and stop motion animation, and it follows the story of James, an orphaned boy who lives with his evil and cruel aunts. The boy finds a way out of his bleak existence when he comes across an enchanted peach, which grows to be enormous, and happens to be inhabited by a gang of super friendly super bugs, who have grown to be human-sized, and ride along on the giant peach with James from England to NYC. While Burton didn't direct this flick, he was a producer, and his magic touch on the film is apparent within moments of it beginning.
  
  

This is just a small fraction of the iconic Tim Burton films that are out there, but these are some of our favorites, and we think they're fun to watch all year long - not just during the Halloween season!

What's Your Favorite Tim Burton Movie? Let Us Know in the Comments Below!