t’s cold out there.” A haunted mansion on top of a nearby mountain used to be home to an eccentric inventor (Vincent Price) who once constructed an entire human being from scratch. But before he finished, the inventor died, leaving his exceptionally bizarre creation, a man named Edward, all alone in the dark, forbidding dwelling. With Danny Elfman’s morbid yet lullaby-like music presiding over the opening credits and introductory narration, the film very much feels as if a whimsical, fantasy take on the traditional Frankenstein tale.

Sure enough, when Avon sales representative Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) finds little luck selling her wares in her boldly colorful suburb, she drives up to the ominous, abandoned castle to see if – quite improbably – someone inside might purchase a makeup item. Though the hedges of the yard are beautifully manicured and shaped, the decorations within are black, bleak, cobwebbed, and in a state of considerable disrepair. And the lone resident is Edward (Johnny Depp), a horribly scarred, pasty-faced (fair-complexioned), wild-haired, leather-clad humanoid abomination with enormous scissor-shaped blades in place of fingers for his hands (brought to life by the special effects geniuses of Stan Winston Studio).

“You don’t have to hide from me.” Even though Edward is perfectly horrifying – and a striking contrast in all black against the pastel shades of every house and structure (and costuming) on the block (the set designs are thoroughly outlandish) – with Tim Burton at the helm, there’s something lighthearted, curious, and pleasant about the character, as well as the unexpected responses to him. Although Edward attempts to integrate into a normal household very much like Frankenstein’s monster exploring and learning about his surroundings, the townsfolk surprisingly don’t view him as a brute. And his interactions don’t result in catastrophes; inspirational tolerance, acceptance, and willingness to help (the Boggs family attitudes are matter-of-fact and strangely sensible) compose the feedback instead. “You would have done the same thing.”

Perhaps most amusing of all, Edward’s abnormalities aren’t ignored or shunned, but adapted and utilized. In this way, he’s not just the creation, but the mad scientist as well. It’s a brilliantly unique way to explore the dreaded otherness of standard horror-movie antagonists (and his condition as both a blessing and a curse); here, mysteriousness intrigues rather than repulses (even in the dialogue, the neighbors suggest that Edward isn’t handicapped with his lack of hands, but exceptional in his differences). The script does touch upon fear, ostracization, nervousness, manipulation, exploitation, bullying, anger, sacrifice, and even religious fervor, but Edward’s extreme visual weirdness is primarily used for a romance plot (not unlike in “Beauty and the Beast”). Can someone so extraordinarily different find love?

That love story involves the Boggs’ daughter Kim (Winona Ryder), whose coveted affections must be earned, despite Edward receiving plenty of interest from neighborhood seductress Joyce (Kathy Baker). The relationships, morals, treatment by peers (and peer pressure), mob mentalities, and gossip complicate this simple premise (including the silliness of requiring a social security number for an automaton-cum-convincingly-artificial-lifeform), but the ultimate question remains: What if Frankenstein’s monster was a typical, moody teenager? With equal portions of humor and heart, this inventive, touching, poetic fairy tale is highly memorable, even if it borrows routinely from prior properties, gothically twisting them into Burton’s signature vision.

– Mike Massie