In an interview with the magazine Interview, Tim Burton said, “I never really got nightmares from movies. In fact, I recall my father saying when I was three years old that I would be scared, but I never was. I was much more terrified by my own family and real life, you know? I think it would be more of a nightmare if someone told me to go to school or eat my breakfast. I would wake up in a cold sweat about those issues. I think that movies probably help you sort those kinds of things out and make you feel more comfortable.”
A great example of ‘write what you know’—Burton has certainly found profitable and entertaining ways to turn his early fears into stories and films. I find it’s the movies of his that seem closest to that kind of material are the most satisfying.
In the interview he cites an example of what terrifies kids: “When an aunt who has blood-red lipstick and lips three feet long comes to kiss you dead-on on your face.”
That brought on a feeling of déjà-vu—a long time ago a friend and I met with Burton about writing a Halloween movie in which situations like an aunt kissing you would become horribly real, with monster aunts with lips three feet long. We never got the gig (he went on to do “The Nightmare Before Christmas” instead) but obviously that particular image is still on his mind.
The question is, what childhood fears can you turn into story material?
