From “Beetlejuice” to Johnny Depp

Tim Burton started his career with a short film about a dead dog that was brought back to life by an electric shock in 1984. Frankenweenie. Since then, he has put his unique Gothic and thoroughly Gothic stamp on the films.

The director is a lover of all things black and sports a distinctive mane of wild hair reminiscent of gothic pioneer Robert Smith of The Cure. His first big (and atypical) hit may have been with Pee-Wee's Big Adventure the following year, but even that film hinted at his preference with the unforgettably eerie appearance of Large Marge, the ghost of a truck driver.

His post-Pee-Wee career is (incredibly) littered with ghosts, specters, skeletons, black slime, and an aesthetic that is both nightmarish and beautiful, betraying the author's background as a fine artist. (Seriously, if you get the chance, The world of Tim Burton Exhibition, take it.)

You can just ask Michael Keaton, who took on another spooky and undead character in, yes, Beetlejuice. When The When the supernatural comedy became a surprise blockbuster, it was clear that Burton would put his unique gothic stamp on the box office – to the delight of a certain audience that wore leather Doc Martens, worshipped Winona Ryder and cranked up Joy Division.

He has (largely) fulfilled this early promise with legendary classics of modern Gothic culture, be it a seductive revived cat lady – Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman in Batman Returns– his numerous collaborations with the gothic queen Helena Bonham Carter or a certain parable about a lovable freak.

Now he has published another brilliant work in Beetlejuice Beetlejuicewhich is fun and gross and weird, even if the franchise's setup doesn't feel particularly gothic (except when it comes to going to a Cure concert) – complete with bulging guts, a stapled Monica Belluci, a Mario Bava homage, and a “Soul Train” to the afterlife. It's a welcome return to the Burton we've known for nearly four decades.

Here we have compiled Burton’s 10 Gothic films (well, no, I’m sorry, Nightmare Before Christmas – The Nightmare Before Christmas does not count), sorted by their Gothic factor on the Robert Smith scale.

Dark shadows

Gothic factor: 3 out of 10 Robert Smiths

Dark shadows may not be one of Tim Burton's best films (okay, it's definitely not), but it's a loving homage to the '60s gothic soap opera of the same name, right down to a cameo by the original series' vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), a role taken by a stiff Johnny Depp in white makeup. Consider this a mere curiosity in Burton's cabinet.

Big fish

Gothic factor: 3.5 Robert Smiths

Big fish is possibly Burton's best film, an emotional and magical powerhouse dealing with tall tales and grief that the filmmaker made after the devastating death of his own father. Ewan McGregor as a burly young version of protagonist Edward Bloom won't scare anyone, but characters like Karl the Giant and Helena Bonham Carter's “Witch” are strong and disturbing enough to warrant mentioning here.

Mars attacks!

Gothic factor: 4 Robert Smiths

A riff on supposedly scary, but in reality silly B-movies that once aired on late-night cable TV, Mars attacks! is a strange trip that mixes cheesy computer-generated aliens and folksy American culture with terrifying bursts of violence. It may be more of a stoner movie than anything else, but we can imagine Robert Smith watching it on repeat in his green room.

Sweeney Todd: The Devilish Barber from Fleet Street

Gothic factor: 5 Robert Smiths

Broadway musicals in general, and Stephen Sondheim in particular, aren't really gothic by nature (too much outward entertainment!), but Burton shows the dark qualities of a story involving serial murder and cannibalism, along with a playful, Oscar-nominated performance from Depp. What a masterpiece.

Batman Returns

Gothic factor: 6 Robert Smiths

Superheroes lost all their noir cool years ago. The first Batman, directed by Burton, was far too colorful to be shown here thanks to the Joker, but Batman Returns pours out its morbid heart in exquisite fashion, whether it's Pfeiffer's Catwoman spraying black paint on her former pink palace, Keaton eating soup in a real cave, or Danny DeVito's sewer-dwelling penguin coughing up black sludge. Amen to the era of disgusting DC Comics.

Ed Wood

Gothic factor: 6.5 Robert Smiths

The historical eccentric Ed Wood almost made a film like Mars attacks! with his beloved piece of Midcentury Trash Plan 9 from space. He was also unlike most people in his own way: a filmmaker who disguised himself as a woman and churned out his low-budget, sometimes unbearable productions when absolutely no one had asked him to. May he still rest angry in his grave.

Sleepy Hollow

Gothic factor: 8 Robert Smiths

A turn towards restrained, sincere drama for Burton, Sleepy Hollow holds up very well. There's something about the understated nature of this crime thriller, which centers on the Headless Horseman and police detective Ichabod Crane (Depp) investigating the myth in the eponymous town, that adds to its sense of unfathomable dread. If this isn't one of your favorite Halloween movies, you're probably not reading this.

Corpse Bride

Gothic factor: 9 Robert Smiths

One only has to search for #corpsebridetattoo on Instagram to see how deeply this romantic stop-motion animated film about complicated love relationships in the land of the dead has influenced the goth community. In particular, women who bought black chokers at Hot Topic as children and have a poster of Siouxsie and the Banshees on their wall. One point off because Burton was co-director.

Beetlejuice

Gothic factor: 9.5 Robert Smiths

The sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a bit too commercial and too focused on fanservice to make this list, but the original is a classic that introduced not only the titular pinstriped bio-exorcist, but also Catherine O'Hara's creator of menacing sculptures and Winona Ryder, who finds her true strength here as the angsty teenage friend of ghosts who always wears black eyeliner (“My whole life is a dark room,” she quips). The plot literally begins with a drowning couple. It will haunt and delight for generations to come.

Edward Scissorhands

Gothic factor: 10 Robert Smiths

A masterpiece that answered the prayers of every moody and misunderstood child in the suburbs, Edward Scissorhands is intoxicating in its mix of gothic references (horror king Vincent Price is pitch-perfect in his final film role as the inventor of the dear title character with the unfinished hands), bedtime parable, and sublimely wacky staging and costume design (shoutout to longtime collaborator Colleen Atwood, who began her magic with Burton here). But it's not just the scissor appendages that make the man; Depp's portrayal is touchingly dark, a study in what it means to be incomplete, to be thrown outside the realm of normality and always only looking in. And again: Winona freaking Ryder!