THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS Director Officially Settles Whether It's A Halloween or Christmas Movie

Fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas have been arguing about whether the movie is a Halloween film or a Christmas film ever since it came out back in 1993, and now the director himself has weighed in and provided a definitive answer to the question.

One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing people lazily claim that Tim Burton directed this movie, when in fact that is not the case. Burton produced it and came up with the story, but Henry Selick, who also helmed James and The Giant Peach and Coraline, was the man who brought this story to life. Selick was at the Telluride Horror Show in Colorado recently, and Birth.Movies.Death was on hand to host a Q&A with him after a screening of the movie. A little girl straight up asked him the question fans have been wanting to know the answer to for years, and — brace yourselves — here was his response:

After the question was asked Selick looked a little surprised, and he said, "Oh boy," likely knowing that whatever answer he gave would be controversial. 

"It's a Halloween movie," he said, definitively. He acknowledged that a lot of people liked the Christmas Town stuff waaaaay better than the Halloween Town ("They love Santa and say he's all-powerful," he said), but he had to tell the truth: this is a movie about Halloween, and the people of Halloween, and how they react to something like Christmas.

So there you have it. What do you think? Are you enraged or vindicated? Ultimately, once a filmmaker releases something out into the world, it no longer belongs to him: it belongs to the audience, who can the art however they wish. But does having Selick himself confirm that this is a Halloween movie have any impact on your own opinion about this stop-motion classic?