20 Fantasy Films You Must See Before You Die

15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

The thought of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp doing anything together these days is enough to make you shout: "Oh, God, no, make it stop!" But let us not forget that there was a time when people were genuinely happy to see what they were getting up to. And that time was around 1990, when brilliantly creative movies like Edward Scissorhands were being made. We all know the story by name: abandoned by his creator before he's gifted with a pair of hands, a strange, childlike man-creature with scissors for hands is adopted into a suburban family. The satirical tone - which pokes fun at American suburbia, among other things - renders Edward Scissorhands as a wholly unique product, back at a time when everything Tim Burton did seemed fresh. Indeed, the visual effects, make up and sets on show here are wonderfully detailed and rich - much better than the stuff that Burton chooses to render now with CGI. At the centre of this very sad movie is Johnny Depp, of course, who genuinely convinces us in his role as the most innocent of all living things. Dark and haunting, this is very much a '90s gem.