Liars and Saints

Like most other people, my husband and I are obsessed with Halloween lawn decorations. We enjoy skeletons crawling up walls, spiders on cloth webs, blow-up cats with moving heads, skulls mounted on spikes. We were thinking of trees as mere launchpads; a tree is a spot where you stick a spooky owl or a bat-with-fangs. But a couple of houses in my particular neighborhood have recognized that a tree itself can be so much more. The tree can be the source of fright--the tree, on its own. One 3-D inflatable takes the form of a black tree with green eyes and a green mouth. At another house, a kind of mask has been mounted onto the tree, so it seems as if there is a face growing out of the bark. This leads me to think of one of my favorite directors, Tim Burton, who has regularly made use of trees in his work. Famously, there is the Tree of Death, in "Sleepy Hollow"; I can never follow the plot of this movie, but the tree in question seems to be a gateway to Hell. (The trunk is ...

It seems to me that "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is about an artist. It's about a guy well-versed in his trade, longing for something new. It's like the story of Sondheim, around the time of "Merrily We Roll Along." Like any good musical, "Nightmare" gives us a colorful setting. "In Our Town of Halloween": A literally two-faced mayor, The Thing Hiding Under Your Bed, an oppressive old woman endangered by Deadly Nightshade, a doll-human in need of stitching, an Oogie-Woogie (really just some worms), a superhero (part-pumpkin, part-skeleton). Jack, our protagonist, has his big "I Want" moment: longing for new inspiration. And then, as in any great story, our protagonist goes on a journey. From Halloween Town to Christmas Town. A fish out of water. Inspired. Except that Jack doesn't fill out his red suit properly; his "gifts" are terrifying specters; he forcibly exerts his will on Santa Claus, who does not app...