Film

Edward Scissorhands

Name: Edward Scissorhands
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Romance
Released: 1990
Cast: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker

Tim Burton's gothic fairy tale about a boy assembled with scissors for hands, left unfinished in a castle above a candy-coloured suburb until an Avon lady brings him down into it. Equal parts comedy, romance and heartbreak, told with the simplicity of a bedtime story — a whole town's curiosity curdling into cruelty. Sweet, strange, and Depp's most tender silent performance.

TMDb rating

7.7

If you liked this

Beetlejuice1988

Burton's earlier suburban fever dream — ghosts stuck between worlds, manic slapstick, the same eye for turning tidy neighbourhoods into something gorgeously wrong. It's the loud, gleeful cousin to Edward's hush.

But All chaos and comic-book colour over romance; if you loved the tenderness here, this might feel too cartoonish.

Big Fish2003

Burton's other great fable, this one about an outsider's life told through tall tales, with the same lush unreality and ache underneath the whimsy.

But More sprawling and openly sentimental, and the storytelling framing device divides people sharply.

Ed Wood1994

Depp and Burton reunite for a warm black-and-white ode to a hopeless outsider chasing acceptance through his art — one of their gentlest, saddest collaborations.

But It's real biography, not fantasy, and slower going with no tidy happy ending.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Let the Right One In2008

Strip away Burton's sunny palette and you get the same structural bones: an inhuman outsider who can accidentally hurt the person they love, taken in by someone starved for connection, in a town that fears what it doesn't understand.

A Swedish vampire film set in a frozen, isolated town, about a strange, ageless creature who befriends a lonely kid — tenderness shadowed by real danger.

But Subtitled, slow, and brutally violent at points — no fairy-tale softness to land on.

Pan's Labyrinth2006

A darker fairy tale about a girl escaping a brutal world into a fantastical one, with the same fusion of wonder and menace and extraordinary creature design.

But Subtitled and genuinely violent in places — less comfort, more dread.

Amélie2001

A whimsical, colour-saturated portrait of a shy oddball finding connection in an ordinary world dressed up as something magical.

But No monster, no metaphor, just pure whimsy — might read as twee if you wanted the gothic edge.

The Shape of Water2017

Guillermo del Toro's fairy tale about a mute woman falling for a captive fish-man — the same tactile, tender love story between human and 'monster.'

But More overtly sexual and violent, with a Cold War thriller plot layered over the romance.

Frankenweenie2012no page yet

Burton's own animated riff on Frankenstein — a boy resurrects his dog and faces a town that turns on what it can't understand.

But Pitched younger and slighter than his live-action work, with less emotional weight.

Splash1984

A charming 80s comedy about a mermaid trying to pass as human for love, blending fantasy, slapstick and real heart.

But Broader comedy, dated effects, and gender politics that feel very much of their moment.

Corpse Bride2005

Another Burton stop-motion fable of doomed romance across worlds, gorgeous gothic design and morbid sweetness.

But Thinner story than Scissorhands, leaning more macabre comedy than heartbreak.

Frankenstein1931

Edward is literally an unfinished invention with oversized, dangerous hands standing in for a heart that works fine — Frankenstein's monster is the myth he's built from, minus the fable's forgiveness.

The original template — a gentle, man-made creature built incomplete, capable of tenderness, met with torches instead of understanding, in 70 lean minutes of Universal horror.

But Black-and-white, stagey by modern standards, and Karloff's tragedy is broader and less romantic.

Crumb1995

Take away Burton's myth and this is what's left: a gifted man whose talent and isolation are the same thing, regarded by his neighbours as a freak — Edward's story with no fable to make it bearable.

A documentary about real-life outsider artist Robert Crumb, whose hands make disturbing, brilliant art, surrounded by a family even stranger than he is.

But No fantasy to soften it, uncomfortable in its honesty about mental illness and dysfunction, genuinely bleak.