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All human beings go through the stage of childhood, a phase when we don’t need to worry about what is going on around us. We are innocent and immature, so our problems are in charge of our relatives, ascendants that we call family. Family members, on top of handling and solving the problems of children, also have the task of educating and inculcating in them the values that have been commonly taught in their lineage for centuries, which is a practice that has allowed them to live in society. Many of these values probably come from the teachings of a religion, a cultural system that allows man to generate confidence and tranquility by thinking that a superior entity is caring for him from a spiritual plane.
In our reality, a large portion of humanity believes in these entities with supernatural powers that are impossible to see from the earthly plane. Yet, to see powerful beings who can subdue us, we do not have to look for them in the Bible or the Koran. The reason? We have lived with them for as long as we can remember: they’re our relatives, more specifically our parents. They gave birth to us, fed us, and taught us their own doctrines (probably derived from some religion). We depend on them. They are like gods to us when we are children. Like religious beings, they bring us confidence and tranquility with their religion. But as we grow up, we realize that the power they have over us is no longer enough, as they can’t manage to meet our needs anymore or maybe we realize that some of their teachings weren’t good at all. These gods failed us. We may need something new to believe in. Other gods, or rather, other parents.
Coraline is a stop-motion animated film released in 2009 and directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas). The film is an adaptation of the novel written by Neil Gaiman. The story of the little twelve-year-old girl who opens the door to the unknown captured the attention of audiences around the world. It’s a horror movie for kids, but it turns out that more than one adult’s hair stands on end. This makes us wonder: why? What is the reason for a PG-rated film to generate a feeling of terror and anguish in a grown-up? I believe this reaction arises because the film presents disturbing elements and subtle religious symbolism that exalt the most frightening aspects of the story in order to show us how a god would be if did not possess mercy towards his creations.
After the opening credits start rolling, a being known as the Other Mother (Teri Hatcher) uses her sewing skills to create a doll with the appearance of her next victim, Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning). The rag figure serves as the eyes of the Other Mother in the ordinary world, which will allow her to spy on the child and find out what she wants most. In addition, the doll will guide Coraline to the discovery of the door that will take her to the world shaped by the entity.
Throughout the first night the girl visits this world, the Other Mother satisfies her most basic desires, simulating the dishes prepared by her mother and the gardening done by her father. However, Coraline didn’t just beg her real parents to indulge her whims. She also begged them for attention, which the girl had been clamoring for since they had moved into the new house. Coraline was ignored, she had no friends and could only interact with her neighbors, freaks too strange and annoying to have a normal conversation with. The Other Mother had seen all this through the doll’s eyes, so now, more than ever, the goddess would not take her big black button eyes off the girl. It would make Coraline the centerpiece of her world and everything would revolve around the child.
The Other Mother managed, as observed through her envoy to the ordinary world, to rebuild the stage behind the door according to Coraline’s deepest wishes. It began with the creation of a being more complex than the doll: the Other Father, a subject who, like the Other Mother, imitates the appearance and voice of one of the girl’s parents. Although this individual acts from his own free will, he is constantly controlled and kept at bay by his creator, just like the other beings who imitate Coraline’s neighbors. The goddess had created a completely new world from that which had been fabricated and imposed by Coraline’s previous gods. In this new environment, the rules of her former religion did not apply. Coraline was no longer subjected to the boring routine imposed by her parents. She was not forced to visit her strange neighbors or perform irrelevant activities such as counting windows anymore – tasks that her parents ordered for the only purpose of not having the little girl bother them or get in their way while they worked on their gardening catalogs.
The Other Mother utilized the same technique that was probably used by Coraline’s parents when she was little. Most children in their early stages of growth are surrounded by the wonders of a new world, pleasures provided by the only gods they know so far. The innocence that little ones overflow at this stage allows parents to manipulate them in a subtle way through simple but effective gifts such as candies or toys. Such simple things manage to generate sympathy in a child, allowing parents to gain power over their children. Eventually, a child’s worldview may be influenced by the vision of his or her parents. Many times the infant can be blinded by their gods. Coraline is tired of this world view. The Other Mother offers the girl not only candy, she offers her a mountain of it. The toys in this world are so much better, in fact, they move by themselves. The manipulation is over, or so the girl thought. But in reality, Coraline once again gave herself blindly to a new religion.
The inhabitants of this alternate reality also have free will but, as in the case of religion, their freedom is limited by rules, such as the Christian commandments. The inhabitants of this world are cornered by imposed orders that directly benefit the Other Mother. Yet, just like those individuals who have sworn piety to the Christian god or powerful individuals like them, these clones are able to develop feelings and differentiate between good and evil. The above can be illustrated when the Other Wyborne helps Coraline escape from the mirror room by feeling guilt about the future that awaits his friend. A similar feeling is expressed by her Other Father when he breaks free from the garden mantis and then claims forgiveness for being forced to hurt the girl.
Visit after visit, the wonders created by the Other Mother fulfill their role by inflaming the sparkle in the child’s eyes. Coraline is happy: this goddess has given her a dream stay in a colorful and joyful world. However, the third time the little girl returns to this territory, things are different. The Other Mother prepared her most elaborate show to make this fantasy come true. After displaying her most complex and detailed creations, such as the beautiful garden of the Other Father and the funny juggling mouse circus of the Other Mr. Bobinsky, it was time to arrange the last aspect Coraline disliked of her new home: the extravagant ladies Spink and Forcible.
The goddess turns the small basement where the two women who love acting and tasseography live into an immense stage worthy of Broadway, where their copies face each other to hog the spotlight. At one point in the presentation, the two women put aside their old-fashioned costumes and reveal themselves as their younger, more beautiful versions. As the women sway in the air, they begin to recite a famous poem from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals.”
The Other Mother speaks through her creations. The goddess of the territory behind the door idolizes the human being of our world. Not only does she express this with praise through a fragment of Hamlet; she also expresses it by fulfilling Coraline’s wishes. Although, if we investigate, it seems like the Other Ladies Spink and Forcible forgot to recite an essential part of the original poem. The next excerpt follows right after all the praise for humankind:
“And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me. No, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.”
This second fragment has a reason not to be recited. Said praises in the first one are dedicated to Coraline, which as we know, is a creation from the ordinary world. An individual who is most like his creator and, even if she dies, her soul will be able to transcend. What comes next can be related to the frustration the goddess has with her creations. The second fragment goes dedicated to the small portion of humanity that inhabits her world. The inventions of the Other Mother, besides lacking spirit, are losing their form. A structure that quickly turns to what was once dust. Just as the Bible dictates: “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis, Ch. 3, Vers. 19). The difference is that beings molded by the Christian god are endowed with an essence that has the ability to reach a spiritual plane that mocks non-existence. Moreover, they possess a body that can last for years without withering if a soul inhabits it.
The Other Mother is jealous of the Christian god and wants to imitate him at all costs. But she doesn’t succeed, since she fails at the most complex thing to repeat: a soul. The show’s over. The time has come. The Other Mother asks Coraline for consent to let her replace her eyes with buttons. Why? Simple. As the saying goes, “The eyes are the window to the soul.” The only way to snatch the soul is also taking what allows us to prove that we have one in the first place. She needs to steal the eyes that humans use to express something as essential as emotions. It is for this reason that she holds captive the spirits of the other three children. They are the ones who allowed her to give life to her world. The ghosts of the infants have only one expression on their faces when Coraline meets them because they are not capable of expressing feelings. Therefore, when the girl gets the children’s eyes contained inside the objects that have been hidden by the Other Mother during the climax of the story (the physical representations of the true intentions that many times our parents like to hide from us), the scenario around her falls apart. There is no longer any life to sustain the environment or its inhabitants. However, in order to destroy the world of this goddess and recover her real parents (who had been captured), Coraline first has to challenge the Other Mother. The entity had already taken its true form after the girl refused to give up her eyes, revealing her a monstrous appearance.
Finally, the girl manages to escape and free the children’s souls. The creations have returned to the kingdom of heaven along with their creator, the Christian god. The little ones have another appearance as angels with a halo, a representation of Christian illustrations. However, the infants do not leave without first warning Coraline that the goddess has not given up, as the door can still be opened. Because of this, the girl destroys the last remains of the Other Mother and throws the door key into a well, thus sealing the entity’s fate. That’s how Coraline, a twelve-year-old girl, dared to defy a god and came out victorious.
Maybe this being was buried forever by our heroine, but the goddess known as the Other Mother continues terrorizing many people who have seen this film. Something frightening to think about is that the gods in our home, our own parents, are not very different from the gods of the religions. Many times we are forced and manipulated by them. Still, there will come a point when we can choose. We can be like Coraline and reveal ourselves against imposed teachings. That way, when we grow up and become the little gods of our children, we can be better at not failing at our creations.
