A masked ball-cum-circus/superhero freak show contained within a Halloween snow globe and wrapped in a black Christmas ribbon. One of the great examples of 90s studio/auteur hubris, which seemed to be a totally misjudged disaster upon release but now looks like one the of the ballsiest and brazenly artistic feats of IP vandalism.

Some of my earliest memories of watching movies includes seeing Batman Returns on VHS when I was way too young and feeling both excited and uncomfortable with its bombastic and severely violent gothic imagery. Burton’s aesthetic, Elfman’s score, the strange transgressive undercurrent flowing throughout – everything here was incredibly formative for me. I have no doubt this film played a big part in my falling in love with movies in the first place and why, to this day, the films I respond to most often feel like the beautiful nightmares of their creators. Perverted, grand, icky and majestic, this movie fucking rocks.

Watched on blu-ray.