'Frankenweenie' premiere: Tim Burton doesn't think 'the movie is scary at all'

With clips like the one in which Martin Landau channels Vincent Price, it’s hard not to wonder if Tim Burton’s upcoming 3D stop-motion film Frankenweenie (Oct. 5), about a boy who reanimates his dead dog, might be a little frightening. Burton says there’s nothing to worry about.

“Kids are funny and they are all so different. I don’t think this movie is scary at all. I think it is fine for kids,” the director said at the movie’s Hollywood premiere last night. “My daughter’s 3 and her favorite movie currently is War of The Gargantuas. I’m an excellent parent.”

Even though Burton believes Frankenweenie — a remake of the 1984 black-and-white, live-action short of the same name, which he directed for Disney — is fine for kids, the 54-year-old does remember what the scariest movie he saw as a child was: “The Ten Commandments was quite a scary movie. Not the first one, the one with Charlton Heston. Watch it. It’s weird and scary.”

We asked other stars at the premiere about the scariest movies they saw as children:

Winona Ryder: “I can tell you what the scariest movie was. This movie Don’t Look Now with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. It really, really freaked me out. The Shining really freaked me out as well. Those were scary, scary movies. But I also liked the old black and white monster movies. Those were more fun.”

Martin Short: “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein and The Spiral Staircase. I liked those a lot when I was young.”

Robert Capron (Frankenweenie/Diary Of A Wimpy Kid): “The Exorcist. I was 11 when I saw it and now I’m 14. My dad got in a lot of trouble for showing me that. It was so creepy and messed up. He watched it with me and there were parts where he’d say, ‘Just don’t watch this part. Close your eyes.'”

Charlie Tahan (Frankenweenie): “The Shining. It looked really cool. The shots are awesome because Stanley Kubrick is an awesome director. It was one of the only movies that actually scared me when I was little.”

Atticus Shaffer (The Middle): “I’m not a big fan of scary movies. I’ve seen bits of The Shining. I watched about 20 minutes of it and had to stop. I was so freaked out. When I see large bathrooms, I am totally freaked out thanks to that scene in The Shining.”

John August (screenwriter): “The scariest film I saw as a kid was The Amityville Horror. I still can’t watch it. I really didn’t like the idea that they claimed it really happened.”

Kendra Wilkinson: “The Chucky movies. He made me hate all dolls and gave me a doll phobia. I would stay under my covers for hours and scream to my mom to help me. I was so scared of any doll. I have watched it recently and I was like, ‘What was I so scared about?’ But I’m not going to lie, I still get creeped out whenever I see a doll. It’s a good thing I didn’t have a girl. The first scary movie I ever saw was Killer Clowns From Outer Space. I will never forget it. Randomly, it did not make me have a clown phobia.”

What were some of the first horror movies you saw as a kid? Were you scarred for life or hooked on horror?

Reporting by Carrie Bell

Editor’s Note: Atticus Shaffer’s credit was corrected.