Title Examples: Liliom (1934 and Carousel 1956) A Guy Named
Joe (1943 and Always (1989) Miracle in the Rain (1956) Jigoku (1960 Japan) The
Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) Truly Madly Deeply (1985) High Spirits (1988)
Beetlejuice (1988) Made In Heaven (1987) Chances Are (1989) Ghost (1990) The
Crow (1994) Haunted Mansion (2003) The Maid (2005 China/Philippines) Corpse
Bride (2005) White Noise (2005) Over Her Dead Body (2008) Drag Me to Hell
(2009) After.Life (2009) Drop Dead Diva (2009-2014)
A woman’s wedding day should be the happiest in her life. No
matter the era, the traditional Western image is a young woman wearing a white
dress and a smile on her face. She is about to marry (hopefully) the man of her
dreams to take on the roles of wife and soon-to-be-mother. But it is also one
of the most haunting images in afterlife cinema: a pale young woman wearing a
tattered white dress, a somber expression on her face and is undead. This is
the "Corpse Bride" figure.
Marriage signifies transition to adulthood because of the
responsibilities entailed. Suddenly a life of independence becomes a life of
partnership. From the wedding ceremony on, there is a new way of
perceiving life. The next several decades of milestone moments will be shared with another
individual. To simplify, there is an eternity of commitment.
The Corpse Bride signifies the death of these expectations.
Not only has she lost her life as a woman, a daughter, (and a sister,) but has also lost her life as a wife, a mother, an in-law, and all the
other roles she personally and professionally may have had. Her life has been
cut short just at the moment it was supposed to escalate. Instead she is stuck
in her current body and a moment of transition. In film, the cause of death is
either an accident or foul play: rarely is it a natural cause. Something or
someone intervened on these women’s plans.
The reverse Corpse Bride is a woman whose
fiancé or new husband has died. She is left alone with her dashed hopes,
expectations and grief. She is physically alive but emotionally and
romantically dead. Her story becomes one based on healing from the shock.
Every Corpse Bride has a mission. Young brides who die at the time of their wedding day are in-between phases and spaces. The bride is of marrying age, thus is no longer a child, but she has also yet to fulfill her potential as a wife. She cannot crossover unless what holds her back is resolved. Though this can be said for all the returned, it is of particular significance to these female characters. Whether they are ghosts, resurrected or reincarnated, their natural lives are over yet still exist in the space of the living or are at least able to visit the space of the living. Upon the film and the characters’ resolutions, the undead Corpse Bride enters a Final Destination: a final phase of existence (within the film story) no longer associated with her natural life. And for the living Corpse Bride, a return to her individuality brings her a new set of goals and outlook. Both types of women do reach a moment of accepting their loss of life and/or loved one and move on.
If she is an undead character, moving on usually means
allowing her betrothed to let her go and find love with another. If she is a
living character, it usually means allowing herself to let go of him and find
new love. But in all of their stories there is resistance. There is jealousy.
There is grief. These are the Corpse Bride films’ central conflicts. Because,
what bride wants to see the man she loves with another woman? And what bride
wants to re-enter the dating scene she fought/hoped so much to leave?
Emily, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter in Tim Burton’s
stop-motion animated feature Corpse Bride (2005), already knew her fiancé
killed her in the woods. Thus, the truth about Emily’s murder is not a secret
or revelation except who the character her fiancé/murderer is. Her afterlife
existence was about finally getting married: to experience the ceremony and
relationship she died for. Bojangles sings, “So she made a vow lyin’ under that
tree/ That she’d wait for her true love to come set her free/ Always waiting
for someone to ask for her hand…” Even though Johnny Depp’s Victor had
unintentionally raised her from the dead, it was speaking his marriage vows and
placing Victoria’s ring on Emily’s twig-like finger that brought her back to
the land of the living to claim her husband. Of course in the end, she realized
she could not keep Victor from his true wife and thus left them together. It is
her transformation into a hundred freed butterflies that marks her true
transcendence of death.
To immediately show Emily was not alive, but had been dead
for a long time, her body and clothing needed to look decomposed: gray-blue
skin, skeletal, and even disjointed/unhinged wearing a tattered dress. As with so many of the
other dead characters in the Underworld, her limbs can pop out and pop off at
any moment. As declared in Bojangles’ song, and of what of the wedding dress
and hair garland are intact, when alive she had been young, beautiful, and naive.
In High Spirits (1988), while Steve Guttenberg’s Jack
drunkenly roams the Scottish castle halls, he comes upon the nightly ghostly
reenactment of the family’s ancestral tragedy. Daryl Hannah’s seventeenth
century Mary runs through walls chased by her jealous husband, Martin (played by Liam
Neeson). Jack thinks this is just another of the castle staff’s haunted house
gimmicks. He continues to witness their fight until he unintentionally steps
between them; saving Mary and ending the curse. Over the next few nights,
Mary’s spirit and Jack fall madly in love. Mary’s young yet pale afterlife
appearance, in her rumpled wedding dress, do not show decay from death but are
signs of suffering Martin’s physical abuse. Because it was her spirit and not
body that was nightly resurrected, her physical form was not affected by time.
However, for Jack and Mary to live happily ever after, he has to kiss her in
full-body form: a withering wrinkled green skin barely-functioning corpse of
decomposed clothes and thinning hair that represents the two hundred years she
had been dead in the family crypt. Like Beauty and the Beast, luckily upon their kiss, she becomes as youthful as the
day she died rather than staying a two hundred year-old rotting newlywed. In addition,
throughout Jack and Mary’s courtship, his wife Sharon and Martin shared a
passionate physical attraction. When Sharon dies/ jumps to her death, she
became his eternal ghostly lover.
Eva Longoria’s character Kate in Over Her Dead Body (2008)
is one of the best expressions of the Corpse Bride. In the opening scene,
Kate micro-manages her wedding reception catering staff. Claiming she wants
everything to be perfect, she also ignores her fiancé Henry’s (played by Paul Rudd)
suggestions she stay relaxed. Just a few minutes later an angel ice sculpture
falls and crushes her. In an In-Between white space, an angel tries to inform
Kate she must return to earth but cannot say soon enough what her mission is.
Back among the living, albeit invisible, Kate mistakenly believes she is
supposed to watch over a depressed Henry and protect him from further hurt.
Instead of trying to help him move on, she purposefully does all she can to
prevent him from entering another relationship by sabotaging his new romance with psychic Ashley. First appearing at Ashley’s apartment, Kate
pretends to be alive and under a trance: she levitates, turns her head 360
degrees, and speaks in a low demon-like voice to warn her of continuing to
pursue Henry. But Ashley is not deterred for long. At a weekend getaway Kate
further ruins what was supposed to be Ashley and Henry’s sexual consummation
with distractions of fart noises and yelling. Only after their breakup and
months apart can Kate see the damage she had on Henry’s life. His darkened mood
returned now with two great love losses. By communicating with Henry’s parrot that
he should get Ashley back, Kate reunites the lovebirds at the airport. Ashley
and Henry’s wedding follows, where Ashley reassures Kate she will love and
protect Henry. This peace of mind for her beloved fiancé and relinquishing her
ghostly powers allows Kate to finally and healthfully move on as well. Kate’s
controlling personality followed her into the afterlife but she had to come to
the realization life must continue without her and that death must make way for
new experiences.
In White Noise (2005) Michael Keaton’s Jonathan Rivers’
young second wife Anna disappears the day she tells him that she is pregnant.
Devastated even after her lifeless body was found weeks later, and after moving
to a new apartment, he mopes about depressed and unable to concentrate on work.
Jon’s spirits are lifted for the first time when a mediator shows him Anna’s
message from the afterlife. Though skeptical at first, increased research makes
him a believer and subsequent apprentice. He keeps his EVP (Electronic Voice
Phenomenon) monitors on for any further communication. What he receives are
Anna’s warning messages about the future: people he needs to save from death.
The electronic ethereal Underworld’s guardians try to keep the two worlds
separate by bullying and killing intruders when necessary: including the
medium, Jon’s companion Sarah, and eventually Jon as well. Jon’s unhealthy
obsession with crossing afterlife barriers began because he could not cope with
Anna’s death and their would-have-been expanding family. Whatever Anna’s reasons were for
sending these messages to Jon, they put him in danger. She should have let him
heal naturally from her death. And this film teaches that the death of a loved
one, specifically a spouse, may be sudden and tragic but you must emotionally
mend by focusing on life.
White Noise's Jon and Anna are a 21st century
re-imagination of the Classical story Orpheus and Eurydice. After Anna’s death, Jon metaphorically descends
into Hell to reunite with Anna, just as Orpheus had to journey into the
Underworld to reclaim Eurydice’s soul. Upon the film’s ending, as the three
gatekeepers kill Jon for his transgression and to restore natural order, it is
reminiscent of Cerberus guarding Hades: except these shadowy figures cannot be
swooned to submission. Orpheus’s second loss of Eurydice is too much to bear,
goes mad and he is later killed.
Drop Dead Diva (2009 to 2014) was one of Lifetime
Television’s most popular shows, (at the time of this article's original posting) now in its fourth season. Deb Dobkins, a young
aspiring Los Angeles model with blonde hair and blue eyes, dies in a car crash.
While in the In-Between for assessment, she refuses to accept death and hits
the aptly fitting “return” computer key. She is promptly put in the overweight
dark haired body of lawyer Jane Bingum. Deb is a Corpse Bride because on the
day she died her longtime boyfriend Grayson was planning to propose. Her life
would have immediately escalated had she been alive to receive the ring and
marry her true love. However, Deb soon realizes there are many advantages to
being Jane. Having plugged into this new body, Deb has access to Jane’s
book-smarts (but not memories) that are used for creative legal problem
solving. And she is now in a position of power with a steady salary that can
afford a BMW. Deb’s extrovert personality transforms what was Jane’s dull
introverted life and thus others’ perceptions of her. Jane’s existence as
Deb-in-Jane shows how confidence can trump looks when seeking respect. Though
Deb enjoyed her life as herself, her new life as Jane allows her to be more
intelligent, able to help people, and win accolades for her work.
In the second season episode entitled, “Last Year’s Model,”
Jane’s colleague/Deb’s fiancé, “Grayson takes on clients who think their house
has been haunted...(At the house) Grayson is made a believer when he sees Deb.
She asks how he is and asks if he’s seeing someone. And Grayson lies and says
no…(Later,) Grayson goes back to the house to talk to Deb and admits that he is
seeing someone (Vanessa, who finds toxic mold in the house)...he admits (to
Jane) he saw Deb in the haunted house, which is a big surprise to Jane. Grayson
admits to her that if he believed in ghosts he’d like to think Deb would find a
way to stay close to him…(Kim tells) Jane that Grayson is still in love with his
dead girlfriend. That’s got to give Jane a bit of hope.” (The Summer TV Blog by Kara Howland, Sunday Aug. 8, 2010)
Deb’s ghostly spirit appears to Grayson, bathed in light as
if coming from Heaven, and in a white nightgown: perhaps how she would have
dressed on their honeymoon. Ghost Deb assures Grayson she is happy and that
though he can honor her memory he should find love with someone else. Though
Grayson’s hallucination of Deb in the haunted house was caused by toxic mold,
it shows that a year after her death, he still loves Deb and is hesitant to
move on with his new girlfriend Vanessa. The show continues on to feature
Deb/Jane and Grayson in separate relationships: Grayson almost marries Vanessa
and Deb/Jane dates a few other men. While in most Corpse Bride stories the
couples are supposed to let go of each other, the show’s plot hinges on a “will
they or won’t they” reunion. Thus, because Deb is not in a separate afterlife
space, she as Jane can still wind up with Grayson, and they can finally have
their wedding ceremony.
Chances Are (1989) and Ghost (1990) are the reverse examples. Instead of physical death, the women emotionally died when
their loved ones did, in front of them. While Sybil Shephard’s Corrine was
already married to Louis for a year and expecting a baby, these circumstances
are the definition of a life on the cusp of transition. They were supposed to
raise their child and grow old together. Instead, Louis died and she was left
to raise Miranda alone. Corrine may have continued on without him, but she has
been attending therapy for years, refuses entering romantic relationships and
refocused her energies towards her daughter and career. In addition, she still talks
to him before and after bed, leaving him snacks by his picture on the side
table, and keeps another photo in her car visor. Only when she is reunited with
Louis in the young Alex’s body (played by Robert Downey Jr.) can she reclaim
her sexuality and then let him go. The film closes with her wedding to longtime
friend and confidant Philip (played by Ryan O’Neill).
Meanwhile Demi Moore’s Molly is made a widow even before her
engagement. Though she and Sam (Patrick Swayze) have recently moved in
together, she thinks they should keep progressing and get married. She brings
up the topic with Sam as they leave the theater, that they should “just do it,”
but before he can give her an answer, Willy kills Sam. Molly is left without
her could-have-been-husband. In the time after his death she refuses to move on
and throw away Sam’s possessions, let alone be convinced he is a ghost. When
Oda Mae (Whoopi Goldberg’s award winning role) finally sits with Molly to prove
Sam’s continued existence, Sam takes over Oda Mae’s body for one last physical
moment. As the film ends, Molly can hear his last words of love and goodbye.
She is able to let him leave as she knows he will be in Heaven. What happens to
Molly afterwards is unknown, but it is assumed she will at least continue her
art.
In 2009, Justin Long’s characters Clay and Paul from Drag Me to Hell and After.Life, respectively, were going to ask their girlfriends to
marry him, but the women died before he could. He is the Corpse Groom (possibly a
topic for another article but will suffice here). In the former title film,
Alison Lohman’s Christine turns down an elderly woman gypsy’s home loan
extension and thus is cursed for Hell. In its last scene, believing she escaped
death, she buys a new trench coat, and meets Clay at the train station for a
weekend getaway. Just when he is about to ask her to marry him, the ground
opens up and swallows her down into the fiery pits. Clay is left on the
platform stunned. She may not return and thus Clay will have to grieve alone. In After.Life, Christina Ricci’s Anna loves Paul but her
stronger instincts for emotional self-preservation prevents her from fully
expressing those feelings. Paul’s initial intentions were to tell Anna he had
been promoted, would have to move, and wanted them to marry so she can come
with him. However, after only hearing the first part, Anna jumps to conclusions
and from her seat, accuses him of wanting to breakup. She leaves Paul before
he has the chance to pop the question, and he will never have the chance
because that night she is supposedly killed in a car accident. Actually, the
funeral home director (played by Liam Neeson) holds Anna hostage drugged in the
basement, making her believe she is not alive. Paul tries to save Anna (after
her burial) but can’t, and he too is held captive. Both are unable to tell each
other their true feelings and neither will be able to have the life they both
wanted.
The Crow (1994)’s Eric and Shelley were killed the night
before their Halloween wedding. As the detectives examine their apartment crime
scene, the camera shows the invitation and mannequin wearing the white wedding
dress. In flashbacks, we see Eric and Shelley alive and happy: especially his
proposal of marriage. They are in love and expect to grow old together. Eric’s
resurrection and purpose is to bring their deaths justice. When his mission is
completed and as he returns to his grave, he sees Shelley bathed in white light
and wearing a white dress. She comes to him so they will celebrate their
marriage in a Final Destination.
A Guy Named Joe (1943) and Steven Spielberg’s remake Always
(1989) each feature a couple that has just reconciled their commitment issues, but
are separated by the male pilot’s tragic death. Pete (Spencer Tracey and
Richard Dreyfus) loves Dorinda (Irene Dunne and Holly Hunter) but he loves
flying just as much, if not more. When he faces losing her, he agrees to
settle down and get married. But before doing so, he has one more flight
mission to complete: which also happens to be his last. Pete dies but returns
to Earth to help train Ted; a (much) younger pilot. Pete then happens to invisibly
reunite with Dorinda a year later. He inadvertently brings her and Ted
together. Instead of promoting Dorinda’s obvious romantic feelings for Ted,
which will let her move on from mourning Pete, he lets his presence influence
her reluctance. He feels slighted that she could love another man. Upon the
film’s resolution, Pete must use his presence to help Dorinda fly a dangerous
mission but realizes her own skills are capable of recuperation, professionally
and romantically. He whispers he loves her,
Made in Heaven's (1987) Michael and Annie met in and are
married in Heaven. But soon after their ceremony, Annie must leave to be born
on Earth to fulfill her incarnation destiny. Michael is grief stricken and demands to be reincarnated as Elmo, with a mission to find Annie born as Ally. Before
Michael left, Heaven’s chief administrator tried to convince him that Annie’s
life on Earth would not seem so long because of how relative time is
experienced. He goes anyway because any amount of time without her was not
worth wasting. Here, it is life, not death that tears them apart just as they
could begin an eternity to be together. Heaven’s rules for reincarnation are
equally as natural as death is for the living.
Geena Davis’ Barbara and Alec Baldwin’s Adam’s newlywed
bliss in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988) was cut short when they careened off a
bridge in their newly adapted rural community. However, much time passed by,
they returned as full-bodied spirits who can change their appearance to spook
the house’s new owners and levitate under sheets. Barbara and Adam’s farmhouse
interior design plans and escape from the Yuppie lifestyle were no longer
possible. They would not be able to stop Delia’s redecorating endeavors of
abstract dark sculptures. Towards the end, two couples are wearing wedding
attire. Barbara and Adam’s decomposed green wrinkled bodies (like Daryl
Hannah’s Mary in High Spirits) signify lost time and death while Wynona Rider’s
Lydia and the ghoulish Michael Keaton’s Beetljuice are getting married in
prom-ready costumes. Lydia’s ceremony is of course stopped but until so, she is
facing the end of her life as a teenager, to begin eternity as a monster’s
young wife. The last scene features Barbara and Adam’s acceptance of death and
making use of their time as Lydia’s second family. Meanwhile, Lydia rids her
Goth image for ‘school-girl prep’ and concentrates on scoring higher test
grades. Having defeated an early death and marriage, she strives for a life
beyond high school.
