The film features Johnny Depp in the titular role as Edward Scissorhands, Winona Ryder as Kim Boggs and Dianne Weist as Peg Boggs.
vincent price as the inventor

• The clothes and the make-up that the humans dress Edward up in change his outside appearance, but his inner self never changes.


• Edward puts on human's clothes when he tries to fit into suburbia, but he tears them off when he fails. The house Edward lives in is very gothic and against a stylised 50’s backdrop. The make-up used on him makes his skin look very pale, very ghostly and pasty. The differences in look are used to highlight the nature of humankind as a whole. The clothes are like shackles that were placed on him to make him blend with society. I think the costume is to be seen as part of Edward himself. This is telling us that make-up, or outside looks, are superficial whereas the human spirit is what is really important and can never be changed. This is a prime example of judging a book by its cover. The industry she is involved in represents a very materialistic world and perhaps a fickle society.


• Even when Edward’s father dies, the blood seen is over-emphasized, which is in keeping with the whole colour scheme of the film. The message is just because someone is not pleasing to the eye, does not mean they are to be feared or to be an object of derision. He is very gaunt looking and it gives the appearance of a skull

Edward Scissorhands is the magnum opus of Tim Burton's and Danny Elfman's career. Watching this film cross between the perky super-saturated parody of American suburbia to the gray toned shadowy images of Gothic horror come together so well, it's clear that the director had the entire movie plotted out in his mind far before the first scene was shot. If this script was given to another director who didn't absolutely understand it the way Burton did, it could've been a miserable failure.

The lowdown on the film is that Edward is a biological human (not a robot), but his inventor, Vincent Price, died before finishing him, so he's stuck with these razor sharp scissors for hands (not quite human). Little scenes, like the brief flashback to where Edward is sitting on a table legless, listening contently to his inventor read a verse of poetry, is such a stark take on the inventor-creature/father-son relationship, nothing similar has ever appeared in another movie. He lives in the place where he was born, a mansion on a hill, until an Avon lady goes to sell some cosmetics. She discoverers Edward and decides to pull him down into the world he was secluded from.

And what a harsh world it is.

Edward is branded as a 'freak' because he doesn't fit in, simply because he doesn't have real hands. He falls in love but isn't sure if he can experience it because he's different. Everything he does is practically ruined because he can't experience life when everything he touches is sliced into pieces. It's somewhat like a modern Frankenstein, but with Danny Elfman's haunting melodies replacing Victor's curses to the heavens, it's more keen on using subtlety.

This is a classic because Edward just wants to fit in, which is exactly what we all want in life. There's a piece of Edward inside all of us, and we can feel Edward's pain as he struggles to fit in. This is a funny story, with Edward pruning hedges into T-Rexs, turning Husky dogs into poodles, and trimming flat and frizzy hair into works of art. This is a sad story, with Edward experiencing the death of his creator, the pain he's caused to everyone he's ever accidentally cut, and the way he won't be accepted into society. This is a story about love, and the hate that can consume it.