Gef’s Festive Film Advent Calendar: 4 Dec

4 December

The Nightmare Before Christmas

*Available on Disney+

Is it a Halloween film? Is it a Christmas film? It’s open to interpretation.. It’s a Halloween film with Christmas bits in it. I’d say it’s 68% Halloween and.. whatever the rest is Christmas. Regardless. Spookiness and festiveness go together like M&S and the middle-class. At the wonderful length of 1hr 16 mins this one takes you back to a time before films got self indulgently long, were overly dependent on CGI, and to the height of Tim Burton’s writing prowess. It’s also got a banging soundtrack so when you get sick of Mariah you can whack on Jack Skellington’s rendition of ‘What’s This’ instead.