Tim Burton: 10 essential films

For a generation of cinemagoers, the films of Tim Burton were a beginner’s guide to the notion of an auteur and a catalyst for lifelong film fandom. There is arguably no other body of work more effective in speaking to a style and a sense of the person sat in the director’s chair, with Burton’s ability to blend the gloomy and frightful with the whimsical, capturing imaginations for almost 40 years. 

He has even earned his own adjective: the term ‘Burtonesque’ is now shorthand for any film that carries a distinctly spooky aesthetic, with the majority of Burton’s films defined by bold colour and Americana that clash deliciously with wide-eyed characters and angular gothic architecture inspired by German expressionist horror films of the 1920s.

A unique Hollywood phenomenon, Burton found immediate commercial success making his eccentric films at a studio level and is justly celebrated for a career-defining run of classics from the late 80s through to the turn of the century. Though a much-maligned series of ‘reimagined’ takes on classic stories would fail to capture that same creative wonder through the 2000s and beyond, open-minded newcomers to Burton’s storied and surreal filmography will find much to treasure among this cinematic trove of imagination. 

With Burton set to return to his roots with the upcoming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a long-awaited sequel to his second feature that promises stop-motion effects and a hand-made sensibility, we chart 10 of his best to date.

Burton made this first professional short during a tenure at Disney, which would end with the studio deeming his work just too weird. This amusing, atmospheric stop-motion tale follows a young boy desperate to be like his idol, Vincent Price, who recites the accompanying Burton-penned poem himself in a suitably venerable voiceover. The short is a delightfully undiluted taste of Burton’s singular talent, and his newfound friendship with his childhood idol would culminate with Price playing the inventor in Edward Scissorhands (1990) – the final feature performance released within his lifetime.

Burton’s feature-length debut brought Paul Reuben’s brilliant parody of childlike petulance to the big screen for the first time in a story that sees the loveable weirdo journey across America in search of his stolen bicycle. At once a showbiz satire and loving lampoon of Italian neorealist staple Bicycle Thieves (1948), the film skirts the border of silly and smart with ease. Quintessential early Burton, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure announced the fledgling director to the world in wacky style and with the promise of even greater things to come.

Beetlejuice proposes a uniquely funny vision of the afterlife, where bureaucracy and paperwork await a New England couple following their untimely demise. Saddled with a family of insufferable yuppies who move into their home, the newly deceased Maitlands seek out bio-exorcist Betelgeuse and unwittingly unleash the crude and dissolute creep on themselves in the process. Burton’s spikiest black comedy is packed to the rafters with invention and ideas, while Michael Keaton’s scene-stealing 17 minutes on screen leave a vast impression, and Winona Ryder arrives a star in one of her earliest and best-loved roles.

No film in Burton’s catalogue typifies his inimitable visual style or love for tales of oddball outsiders better than Edward Scissorhands. Initially conceived from a lonely childhood in suburban California, Burton’s modern fairytale follows the “uncommonly gentle man” down from his home in an abandoned castle to the pastel-coloured neighbourhood beneath its driveway. There, Edward becomes a sensation but soon learns the dangers of a world designed for those afforded opposable thumbs. Featuring many hallmarks of the director, from the all-timer score by longtime collaborator Danny Elfman to the sprawling cast of character actors, Burton’s most personal film remains as sharp as ever.

While Batman (1989) broke the box office, sent Burton’s career into the stratosphere and changed the industry forever – heralding the modern age of comic book to screen adaptations – its 1992 sequel is Burton fully off the leash. Having agreed to return to the director’s chair in exchange for greater creative control, his second stab at gothic Gotham is far richer and wilder. Embracing the material’s fetishistic flavour, Burton turns the dial up in every single aspect, from Danny DeVito’s vile Penguin and his army of aquatic birds to Michelle Pfeiffer’s incomparable, leather clad Catwoman – arguably the greatest of all comic book movie performances.

If Edward Scissorhands offers a glimpse inside the soul of the man, Ed Wood beats with the heart of Burton the filmmaker. Introducing a screening at BFI Southbank in 2019, Burton said: “I don’t like talking about myself, but if you want to know anything about me, cryptically, it’s in this movie.” A heartfelt homage to failure, Ed Wood follows the ‘world’s worst filmmaker’ as he makes some of his best-known B movies with a found family of quirky collaborators. Burton’s first financial flop, the film has only grown in esteem and is now often included among the greatest films about filmmaking ever made.

Burton’s tribute to the kind of science fiction films of the 50s that were favoured by Ed Wood himself, Mars Attacks! finds an all-star cast of Hollywood royalty fending off an invasion by bulbous-headed Martians. As disparate characters spread across the USA band together to save themselves from neon destruction, this tongue-in-cheek pastiche of self-importance and inaction is a visual feast that wails with the unbridled joy of all involved – from the chihuahua-transplanted head of Sarah Jessica Parker to Jack Nicholson’s double duty as both casino-creep and an out-of-depth president.

While Burton would later become known for turning his hand to existing IP, his greatest adaptations retain that Burtonesque energy in its purest form. Inspired by Washington Irving’s classic tale of the headless horseman, Sleepy Hollow finds a squeamish New York detective sent to investigate a series of macabre and mysterious deaths in the eponymous town – populated by some of Britain’s most well-regarded actors. Having been fascinated with the image of the headless horseman since his time as a Disney animator, Burton drew inspiration from the supernatural quality of Hammer horror films to create one of the most arresting and evocative pictures of his career.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street goes one step further and is Burton’s darkest movie to date. In this adaptation of Broadway giant Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking horror musical, the spray of crimson blood from a freshly sliced throat is often the only hint of colour on Burton’s screen. There is much to love, for both horror aficionados and musical theatre nerds alike, in this tale of a wrongly convicted barber hell-bent on his gory revenge. Burton’s movie thumps with dread as Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter’s unrepentant, ghoulish deeds unravel with unflinching urgency.

A feature-length, animated remake of Burton’s own 1984 short of the same name, this stop-motion gem is both an homage to and parody of Frankenstein (plus countless other horror classics). School science prodigy Victor revives his dead pooch Sparky by harnessing the power of lightning, but an eclectic roster of copycat classmates soon resurrect their own undead pets, unleashing B-movie mayhem. Burton was fired by Disney after Frankenweenie’s first outing was declared to be a waste of company funds, so it’s fitting that the Mouse House would seek out their one-time protégé and finally bring his labour of love back to life in electrifying fashion.

The Tim Burton season is on now at BFI IMAX.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is in cinemas from 6 September.

Stop Motion: Celebrating Handmade Animation on the Big Screen runs at BFI Southbank in August and September.