The fantasy movie “Coraline” is about a girl, Coraline Jones, who moves to a boring new town in Oregon with her family. While exploring her new home, she stumbles across a hidden door that leads her to an imaginary parallel version of her life, also known as The Other World. The 2009 clay-motion movie “Coraline”, provided by Laika Studios, won the AFI Movies of the Year award. The spine-chilling movie has led many fans and viewers to believe there is more to the film than meets the eye. As the curtains close in the movie “Coraline”, it is shown that the main character, Coraline Jones, leaves the Other World and returns home, but did she actually?
Towards the end of the movie, it is clearly shown that Coraline returns home and has a happy ending as she and her neighbors enjoy the garden party hosted by her parents.
But is this truly what happened?
Many fans believe that this was an illusion created by the Beldam to keep Coraline trapped in the Other World forever. Moreover, Coraline was set up by Ms. Lovat, Wybie’s grandmother, whose sister had also been a victim of the Beldam.
For starters, the Pink Palace, the home Coraline and her family moved in, was owned by Ms. Lovat. It was revealed that it was her rule that children were not allowed to live in the Pink Palace. This was to ensure safety since Ms. Lovat’s sister went missing and became a victim of the Beldam.
Then why did she allow the Jones family to move in?
This is because the Beldam hadn’t had a new victim in years, and Ms. Lovat’s grandson, Wyborn “Wybie” Lovat, was coming of age and soon would be her next target. She knew Wybie or Coraline would experience the same unfortunate fate as her sister. That said, she allowed the Jones family to move into the Pink Palace to save Wybie from the Beldam’s clutches.
This allowed the Beldam to have fresh, new prey to lure on, Coraline.
When Coraline first returned home after visiting the Other World, she would fall asleep and magically wake up with everything remaining how it used to be. Although this is what was portrayed on video, many fans believe that there was a deeper meaning behind this.
It’s pretty bizarre that for Coraline to enter the Other World, she would have to go through the portal, but to leave, she didn’t have to take the same route. This was the Beldam’s trick of lying low. Each time Coraline sleeps in the Other World, she enters a deeper layer of the parallel realm, and when she awakens back to the “real world,” it is a hallucination created by the Beldam.
The portal, often called the hidden door, was the only way to exit the Other World. Unfortunately, access to this door was limited by a single key. Coraline and Wybie throw the key into a well, hoping to suspend the Other World, unknowingly eliminating their only escape route. As a result, Coraline will be trapped in the Other World forever with no escape.
Coraline received insights from Ghost Children, who had also fallen prey to the Beldam’s snares, including Ms. Lovat’s sister, imparted to Coraline that once they laid eyes on the Beldam, they never saw their birth mothers again.
“ I find it hard to believe that Coraline was reunited with her mother despite the other victim’s misfortunes.” Brighton Bigelow states.
To be clear, Coraline did not receive any preferential treatment and was no different from the rest of the hopeless victims of the Beldam. She was another casualty whose soul would be possessed.
This theory does not even scratch the surface regarding “Coraline” fan lure. Many fans provide more exciting theories on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit.
