During Wybie's introduction, he seems to know - or at least has been told - why the Pink Palace is off limits to families with kids, awkwardly saying he's not supposed to talk about it. It's possible that his grandmother has told him the truth, only to have him not believe her outlandish tale. Wybie's panic when confronting a frantic Coraline is less from Coraline herself and more the horrified realization that it's all real.
Another possibility is that she's told him only that it's dangerous, but nothing specific, and he was unprepared for Coraline's story of parent-stealing, wall-portals and ghost kids.
- There is a lot to suggest this. It's explicitly stated that IT is female. The final form is a spider. IT shapeshifts for the purpose of Mind Rape. The Other World could be near to the Deadlights. Even the setting could be a cryptic clue to the Beldam's true nature. Oregon has doubled for Maine before, this is just Neil Gaiman (a Stephen King fan) doing the same with Derry as he did for Castle Rock. He only gave the setting as Ashland to keep the clue cryptic.
- And the Cat could be a reference to the Turtle, the intelligent, perhaps omniscient, animal who lives in IT's world and counteracts her will. Man, this is getting clearer and clearer.
- Let's look at the similarities:
- Both are shapeshifters.
- Both can warp reality as they see fit.
- Both are evil one way or another.
- Both eat children.
- And both have a final form related to spiders.
- Now let's see their differences:
- IT feeds on fear, Beldam feeds on love.
- IT got beaten by seven kids and died twice, Beldam got beaten by one but survived.
- IT can live 30 years without food, Beldam can live 50.
- IT takes form of the fears of her victim, Beldam takes on the form of people her victims love or trust.
- IT doesn't require free will to devour kids, Beldam needs to sew button eyes on them first.
- Think about it. As the cat "winks out" before the end credits, you begin to realise the other mother and he are supernatural opposing forces/beings. There are many comparisons that draw attention. Up front, the other-mother outwardly looks refined while the cat looks mangy. In truth, her true form is quite hideous and frightening, while the cat is splendidly noble. The Other Mother's eyes are dull lifeless black buttons. The cat's eyes are windows to the soul, so beautifully deep-blue you could fall into them forever.
- The Other Mother puts on an impressive front with weasel words, while the cat in his own world remains perfectly silent. She violently forces people to love her and obey her, whereas the Cat will not interfere, but merely stare sadly and disapprovingly at those who disappoint him.
- The cat's world looks barren at first glance, a depressing struggle of life and death, because he doesn't try to impress. On the other hand, the Beldam's world may look tempting and inviting, its all a lie, a cruel trap.
- The Beldam's creations are sad miserable soul-less slaves to her will, where death through disobedience or failure is final, but the cat's creations have freewill graciously provided, and can do whatever they please during life, and even get to enjoy a life after death.
- After Coraline found the Ghost Children's eyes and freed them, they appear to be in Heaven. Notice how the background is blue, and every star in there is a golden soul? They're in the Cat's deep blue eyes.
- He loves his creations, hence assumes the form of a feral little cat, he wants them to love him out of freewill. As The cat himself cryptically spoke unto Coraline when discussing the Beldam's motives for wanting Coraline "she wants someone to love I think, someone that isn't her", he was referring to himself, and finishing that statement "Or maybe she just wants someone to eat." is referring to none other than the Other Mother.
- No one may permanently leave the Cat through accident or curiosity. His creations will keep returning to him, hence why Coraline kept finding herself in her bedroom in the real world, much to her confusion. Its only when she deliberately rejects the real world for the Other Mother's, does she become physically trapped.
- He's rather angry and put-out that the Other Mother has stolen three of his creations, the ghost children, and wants them back, constantly winking in and out of her world trying to find them, in what he dismissively calls "A game we play". The Cat is only finally content when his creations have been returned by Coraline at the ending of the story.
- Also take note of the fact that he spends almost all his time before Coraline arrived, with the only child close to the house. Possibly to protect him just in case?
- He starts to keep a very close eye on Coraline, staring jealously through the window as she deliberately leaves his world for the Other Mother's through the little door.
- The Cat, however, ultimately respects his creation's freewill. He wants the ghost children back because they now regret what they've done, and want to return.
- He does not directly intervene with Coraline's choices. However, when the calculating Other Mother goes as far as to kidnap her parents, does he then get involved. They never chose this, so the Cat purges the entire unpleasant ordeal from their memories once they are safely returned to his world.
- That's a WMG? I thought it was obvious that he likes her, and much of their interaction throughout the film is pretty standard prepubescent flirting. She does call him a stalker. None of this is subtle.
- Not really, though? He could be romantically interested, or he could just be excited that there's finally another local kid to talk to and/or want to be her friend. The idea that there's 'obvious' subtext doesn't seem to have much basis beyond the assumption of 'they're a boy and a girl, so *clearly* their interactions must be romantic'
- As far as I know, "beldam" just refers to a mean evil woman (ironically, from the French "belle dame" or beautiful lady). So I think the correct term to refer to her really is "The Other Mother".
- The irony there is wrong, Beldam means witch.
- It's short for "Belle dame sans merci"- a poem by John Keats. And probably one of the fair folk, but also generally a scary lady who is pretty and pitiless.
- In the video game, halfway through the game they start referring to her as The Beldam in text boxes.
- Beldam, until around 1570, meant "grandmother", the male counterpart being belsire. After 1570, it could be applied to any old woman... but keep in mind that the root word is still Old French belle. Remember, the whole reason we call them Fair Folk is because they do not like unflattering names...
- The irony there is wrong, Beldam means witch.
- This can also extend into a theory concerning the Other Mother: in the real world, she was gangly and homely, no one hanging around her, and on top of that, she couldn't have children. She went insane when she heard this news, and began dabbling in dark magic, creating the Otherworld in her part of the flat, which is why it's bricked off and no one has bought it: It's haunted, and people who say this can prove it. When the bricks open, it takes whoever lives there into an alternate version of the flat. She started slowly, changing her appearance and seducing the Other Father into her world, then Other Wybie, and then the acrobats and Bobinski. After she got everyone she needed wrapped around her finger, she began bringing in the children for snacks. The reason she never killed her Others was because she just couldn't create living, breathing dolls, too advanced. And, somewhere deep in her cold, black heart, there's a tiny warm spot of the girl who lived in the flat, enjoying the love, family, and friends she always wanted.
- Erm, the thing about the Other Wybie can not be entirely true. You'll notice at one point in the film you can see thread holding Other Wybie's lips together.
- The Other Mother was a True Fae from Changeling the Lost and the other world was Arcadia.
- The Other Mother was initially the same kind of Freudian nightmare that the Corinthian was, or otherwise a pleasant dream that was likewise corrupted in Morpheus' absence. She sealed herself off in a particular physical place rather than roaming about, making her absence far less noticeable.
- Specifically, the Other Mother was a dream of comfort for children dealing with Abusive Parents, Parental Neglect, or other aspects of a Dark and Troubled Past, giving them hope with images of loving parents who always have plenty of food, toys, and attention to give. She might even have arisen from the idea of beloved dolls/toys, cared for by love-starved children, thus the button-eyes and the puppet-theater-like atmosphere of her world. As she became corrupted, her love became warped, and she decided that, if those precious children were so miserable in harsh, cruel Reality, then the best thing she could do for those poor things would be to bring them into worlds made just for them... and never let them go, even though she had gone from being sustained by their hopes/dreams to actively siphoning the life from them with her "love."
- The Cat is Dream'a cat form. He slips between dimensions at will, as the Endless can do. He can't talk in reality because The Endless conform to people's expectations and people think cats can't talk. The Other Mother's realm is trippy and unreal, so it fits that a cat can talk. When he refers to "the game" he and the Other Mother's play, he really means his attempts to get her back in the Dreaming or destroy her, as he did with the other escaped dreams. She was smarter than the others and escaped to pocket universe with its own rules, limiting Dream's influence. We all know what a stickler for the rules Morpheus is, so he's waiting her out.
- I'm glad I wasn't the only person who noticed the similarities.
- Furthermore, by eating him, they somehow absorbed his mind and/or soul, which allowed them to mimic his voice and behaviour to an extent.
- Possibly he was simply made of rats, much like the Other Father in the movie was apparently made from a pumpkin.
- If you listen, the dialogue would seem to confirm that he was indeed eaten. Coraline tells him he's just a copy of the real Bobinsky, and his line after that is "no, not even that...anymore..." and on the "anymore" his voice becomes multiple voices.
- Being 'made' of rats makes sense, since in the circus scene Other Bobinsky only appears at the end of the performance, and the 'mice' all go in under his clothing. When the Other Mother's magic starts to unravel, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to hold that form, eventually dissolving into the rat swarm. It works thematically with the Other Father being made from a pumpkin, and the Other Spink/Forcible being taffy.
- He was eaten by his dreams! This seems to ring throughout the movie. People getting eaten up by their dreams. The very thing Coraline is trying to avoid.
- A spider that could move between worlds like the Cat, but decided to use this ability for power.
- Wait, if that's the case.. What the hell was the Other World before that? And why is this limited to animals?
- The Other World was just a blank slate, like what happened when Coraline walked around the edge of the world. And who said it was limited to animals? just said these two particular beings had it (Cat because... it's practically canon, and the spider because of tunnelweb/bridge-web tropes).
- Wait, if that's the case.. What the hell was the Other World before that? And why is this limited to animals?
- A prototype sewing machine that became the first ever rogue robot.
- A preying mantis that happened to use a floor that turned into a web. (just look at her when she's making dinner.)
- The actual Beldam of a boarding school who died in a tragic knitting needle incident.
- The T-1100.
- The real twin sister. Everything else was just lies.
- Coraline.
- Kind Of.
- Alternately, she was once a normal girl like Coraline who lost the people she loved and tried to replace them with dolls. Am I the only one who found Coraline lying in bed with mockups of her parents to be really creepy?
- She is what Coraline may have become, if she had let the Other Mother sew buttons into her eyes. The Other Mother / Coraline went back in time to ensure that she becomes the Beldan, thus creating a Stable Time Loop. Because she has such control over her dimension, she can alter the rules of time so that the entrance to the Other World can appear, not neccesarily anywhere, but anytime.
- In the movie, just as Coraline was escaping, she yelled, "DON'T LEAVE ME, I'LL DIE WITHOUT YOU!" This is because Coraline has chosen a different path, so what would have been her future will be undone, and the Other Mother will cease to exist.
- All Just a Dream.
- Haruhi.
- A Time Lor-- *CUE AUTOMATED SWIRLY*
- A Carrionite.
- The Other World is a TARDIS. The chameleon circuit disguised it as a small brick wall lodged inside a wall, behind a door. Aforementioned circuit broke when the TARDIS broke and died. How is there a whole dimension within a brick wall? Why, it's bigger on the inside, of course!
- In recent Matt Smith episodes, the Doctor has been able to create rooms via a telepathic connection with the TARDIS. The Beldam has a telepathic connection with her TARDIS.
- If the TARDIS died, how can she have a telepathic connection?
- {{A Wizard Did It.}}
- Whenever the Other Mother changes her appearance to look like a prettier version of the child's mother, she is actually regenerating.
- The main friend on the other side
- Could it be... SATAN!!!??!
- An unstable sparklepyre who tried and failed to create her own foster-family after seeing how happy the Cullens were (she kept getting really hungry).
- A relative of Jareth's. Think about it. Both like tricking young girls into dangerous games, get angry with subjects/creations that help the protagonist, and enjoy watching the protagonist's feeble attempts to win, until they actually do, then they go depressed/nuts. Fanfic exists of this, and it is good.
- A being from the Macroverse. She's a giant female spider that uses illusions to seduce and ensnare children. They all float in the mirror'.
- Is, or has some connection to, Orochimaru. The Other World is a giant-ass Genjutsu.
- Well, with Keith David as the mentor figure, I don't think we can rule out a Reaper/Reaper construct and Indoctrination Theory. (Which would make the ghost children Catalysts, I guess.)
- The reincarnation of Bill Cipher. In "Weirdmaggedon Part 2" he created a world that at first looks as a Sugar Bowl, where the dreams of everibody who lives there come reality, but actually it's only a tranp made of bugs, monsters, and a monster made of bugs; The Other World, at first looks as making the drems of the child who lives there, but actually it's only a trap made of rats, sand, monsters, and a monster made of rats; the final goal of Bill was play a game (Ford said that for Bill the weirdmaggedon was oly a game, and Bill´s goal was cause it), and the Other Mother loves games; both stalk people to discover what things of their lives they want to change. How Bill was defeated by two chlds, when he reincarnated he/she decided only attack childs.
- Why do the book and movie Other Mothers have to be separate? I can understand Coraline (movie Coraline has emotions, book Coraline doesn't) being different in the book and movie, but the Other Mother could be the same. If so, perhaps the Other Mother stole the fairy child away as her first victim because she was also a changeling, and the Other Mother wanted someone like herself to love.
- The same cat who protects the narrator's family from the Devil in Gaiman's short story "The Gift."
- The Cheshire cat. He has dimension-hopping abilities.
- The cat seen briefly in the opening of The Nightmare Before Christmas. They look pretty much exactly the same, and with his dimension-hopping abilities he could probably travel to Halloween Town if he wanted.
- Kuroneko-sama
- This would definitely leave some more possibilities for the sequel Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick might be planning; after all, who wouldn't want to see adorable Other Wybie again?
- ...Okay, it's almost definitely not going to happen, but a troper's allowed to hope, right?
- Nonsense, Coraline's gonna team up with Chihiro and battle over-protective witches across the globe!
- Wrong. She's going to join the Cat, Alex Mercer and a certain Mr. Do-Everything and launch a counter-attack on Ultranationalist Russia!
- Coraline is going to team up with Harvey Swick, and Bod, and they'll fight crime with the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.
- So The Other Mother turned into a scary spider from eating so many invertebrates? That could work!
- Last name? Check. ;)
- Cool hat? Check.
- A weapon of choice that was originally meant for another purpose: Indy's Whip, Coraline's Hedge Clippers (Sorta)? Check.
- So I'm not the only one who preferred movie Coraline and thought that book Coraline was a bit of a Creepy Child? It's also interesting to note that book Coraline has a moment where she wonders if there's an other her before concluding that there's just her. Lack of Imagination, perhaps?
- The Arbiter. The cat is immortal, and after he's bored with guarding the house he uses his 1337 teleporting skills to go to another planet. Once there, the harsh conditions forces him to undergo Hollywood Evolution, until he looks like The Arbiter. Plus they have the same voice.
- Sgt. Foley. The cat either has shapeshifting powers, or he and Foley are a part of a Hive Mind. In Modern Warfare 2, Foley shows absolutely no fear of death during the evacuation of civilians from Washington DC because if he dies, his mind still survives as the cat is (presumably) immortal. They also have the same voice.
- A Time Lord. Because somebody's got to say it.
- Let's see... Virtually unrestricted inter-dimensional travel at ease? Check. Ability to communicate with all sorts of sentient lifeforms (his explanation about 'talking' with Other Wybie may not be overt, but it does seem to to suggest telepathy)? Check. What else?
- Better. The Cat is The Doctor
- Let's see... Virtually unrestricted inter-dimensional travel at ease? Check. Ability to communicate with all sorts of sentient lifeforms (his explanation about 'talking' with Other Wybie may not be overt, but it does seem to to suggest telepathy)? Check. What else?
- Dr. Facilier. As stated on the WMG page for that particular film. He was sucked into the Other World by his main "Friend", the Beldam, after he failed to uphold his end of the deal with her. Once he was there, she proceeded to turn him into a cat as further punishment, and he's been fighting her ever since. Plus, like Foley and the Arbiter, he's got the voice actor connection going on.
- Another Fairy; like the Other Mother, but with nicer intentions.
Coraline's 'Other Mother/Father' might be symbolizing the 'new parents' she might get if her parents were divorced and/or she ended up getting step-parents, possibly playing on a subconscious fear Coraline might have of her parents separating, for whatever reason.
It'd certainly give throwaway phrases like "You know I love you, Coraline," as well as "You're NOT my mother!" and "I want to be with my REAL Mom and Dad!" a lot more symbolism...
- Also note that Coraline seems to have a better relationship with her father than with her mother. The Other Father is, er, the un-evil one, and from the beginning he was trying to help Coraline. In the movie it's pretty much obvious that Coraline's parents are having problems, so that also could back this up.
- The Other Mother is evil, powerful, and initially tries to manipulate Coraline into genuinely liking her, before getting upset with Coraline for rejecting her totally unreasonable demands and rules, which take away a defining aspect of "her" child. She then puts her foot down, reveals her true nature, and takes control (or tries to). The Other Father is goofy and mildly submissive towards the Other Mother at first, before at the end telling Coraline he wants to be on her side - but being out-powered by the Other Mother and forced by her to help her hurt and dominate Coraline. Does This Remind You of Anything? In the right words, it sounds a lot like the stereotypical evil-stepparent scenario - the child reaches out to their "real parent" for help, but the parent is blinded by love and (deliberately or inadvertently) sides with their new spouse while trying to reassure the child they still love them, although to the child their parent's actions speak louder than their words.
- Alternatively, it's not a metaphor, but a Nightmare Sequence based on a fear of her parents separating.
- Also, judging by the easiness of acquiring military-grade weapons in Modern Warfare 2, we'll assume that the glove that Coraline wants to buy is actually a shiny new
AC-130 gunshipACR with M203, Silencer, Heartbeat Sensor and ACOG.- Which means that Up also takes place in the Modern Warfare 2 universe since Carl was able to acquire a crapton of balloons and helium tanks overnight despite being recently sued for physical assault.
- The Cat sounds a bit like Sgt. Foley. Insert a relevant joke at your own expense.
- The post-invasion US is probably not going to be very friendly to Mr. Bobinsky...
- Also, judging by the easiness of acquiring military-grade weapons in Modern Warfare 2, we'll assume that the glove that Coraline wants to buy is actually a shiny new
She was a genius who was really, really good at making dolls. Then she realized, "Hey, children would love dolls who can talk and play!" So, she made a machine that could make dolls that are alive, and she tested it with herself. It didn't go very well.] After finding out she has effectivly turned herself into a horrifying, UncannyValley-esque doll/spider creature she bricked herself inside a room and hoped she would die before her humanity died. Then she got another Inspiration moment and built a machine to subvert the real world, so that she would turn into a human again. Once she found out this could only work if she still had her eyes, she crossed the Despair Event Horzine and decided it would be perfect if she had some kids, to keep her sanity and humanity and tried to contact a girl in the real world. This worked, and found out her doll/spider self really, really enjoyed Lifeforce.
Yeah. Because this is so what would happen in the WOD universe.
The only exceptions to this would seem to be the creatures she creates with some kind of free will, or those that already have it. Examples being the Other Father, the Other Wybie, and the ghost children. The others are just puppets created to entertain.
- What evidence is there that they're exceptions? If you look at half of what the Beldam says as toying with her prey, of course. Mind games, and all.
- Maybe she can't see through all buttons, but just the buttons from her sewing kit.
- Also, the look on the Other Mother when she sees the Cat being thrown at her is similar to the look on many BioShock players' faces when they see a Big Daddy charging towards them.
- Alternatively, The Cat is Schrodinger from Bioshock 2. Judging by leaked audio diaries for BioShock 2 DLC, cats were spliced as well for cosmetic reasons so why not splice speaking abilities into the cat? he just keeps quiet when not in Rapture or in the otherworld because it would freak people out.
- Try Googling "Coraline/Twilight crossover fic".
- Interestingly, Terry Pratchett's section on Gushing About Characters You Like also mentions this. Pratchett and Gaiman worked together on Good Omens, so who knows?
- Or maybe even ... !
Barney has nightmares about that cat because he's not an animal person, and talking teleporting animals that talk about button eyes and creepy people eating children (things I would assume he would talk about after looking into the Other world) are not average things to talk about. And are creepy. Especially when said by a weird talking black cat.
- Me: Wow, that was amazingly stupid.
Wavvy Wavvy Wavvy.
OK, maybe not....Yeah.
- Thanks a lot for the fanfic idea!
- Wouldn't you mean as a Darkling? The Other Mother doesn't seem inclined to put Coraline to work with mechanical contraptions. Anyway, she may well have actually escaped - plenty of Changelings do, after all. Coraline just happens to be extraordinarily lucky to not have been replaced with a Fetch or had time go extremely wonky during her brief imprisonment.
- Wizened, because of all the games played with the Keeper for her "freedom".
- Or perhaps an Elemental, specifically a Manikin. The Beldam does love her dolls. Until she gets tired of them and puts them away and forgets about them, of course...
- Considering both Changeling: The Lost and Coraline are drawing on the old tales of Faerie, The Beldam being one of the Fair Folk is virtually guaranteed. As The Cat said, "There's no guarantee she'll play fair, but her kind of thing loves games and challenges."
- Mention of the Gentry reminds me that Neil Gaiman once co-wrote a book with Terry Pratchett and is demonstrably familiar with the Discworld. One of the Discworld novels is The Wee Free Men. In which the Queen of the Elves, a recurring Big Bad in Pratchett's writing, seeks to steal an earthly child to raise as her own, only to have her ass kicked by a badass ten year old girl who enters her world, defeats her, and rescues two stolen boys. Sounds familiar? Could the Other Mother be an intrusion into our world of the Discworld Elf Queen, who thinks she's safe here as there aren't anyt witches.... and then she meets Coraline, Tiffany Aching's Earth avatar...
- Maybe the cat is Francis.
- Except she had to throw the flashlight to get the dogs to attack, and after it all the whole theater went gray. Don't tell me stoning is contagious by contact...
- It seems possible, even likely, that there were more, perhaps earlier victims than just those three; maybe Other Mother always fed on human children, and her daughter was unhappy with it. Perhaps one day she was caught trying to help a future meal escape and Other Mother punished her with death? It's possible that being a fairy/fae rather than a human like the rest allowed her spirit to linger for longer than a human's would have lasted.
- Ability to travel through walls and worlds? check
- fond of/mentors girl hero? check
- Deadpan Snarker? check
- clearly Movie Cat glamored his eyes, as purple-eyed cats in Coraline's world would draw more attention than bright blue.
- Not everybody's perfect.
- Or maybe they kept writing the words in the hopes that someone would notice and didn’t even know it could be Coraline (since they could hardly know that the place they were kidnapped to was the same dream world Coraline kept talking about and that she could see them through her mirror). After all, we never find out how they felt inside the globe (except that it was cold there) and what exactly they saw out of it.
- Actually, no...that seems very likely, since the trick the Other Mother pulls on Coraline, disguising herself as Mel, also includes the snow from the vision in the mirror. The consistent presence of the snow makes it look like the mirror vision was a ruse to make Coraline decide to return and attempt to rescue her parents, although both hint at where the parents are actually hidden. Arrogance seems the most likely reason for that.
- So parents aren't supposed to ask for help if they're trapped in a freezing prison that's slowly killing them, with literally no one else but their daughter to save them? They were trapped in the snowglobe that was simply linked up to the magical world which is why they could use the mirror as a sort of portal with no exit, like in Soul Eater. It's just that.
- Expanding on this, the Beldam's wish was to be rid of a teenage pregnancy. Over time, the guilt got to her for 'killing' the unborn baby, so when she turns into a Witch, she snatches children as Replacement Goldfish to try to assauge her guilt.
- What if the cat is an incubator?
- Then why didn't he Contract Coraline much earlier?
- Alternate idea: What if the cat's been protecting Coraline from the Incubators the whole time? When he runs offscreen he's actually off to kill an Incubator. After all, Homura's witch refers to Incubators as rats anyway.
- The Other Mother and the Other World are symbols of childhood. The Other Mother is the promise that if Coraline doesn't grow up, things will be just as she wants them and that she doesn't have to be mature if she doesn't want to. But we know that's not true, because the other mother and the other world both change drastically as Coraline goes deeper, realizing that staying immature and childish won't make things go back to the way they were, or the way she wants things to be.
- The Cat is basically a snarky Jiminy Cricket. He acts as Coraline's literal conscience and guide through the Other World. He's an allegory for adulthood and how it should be. Cool, collected, but laid back and easy going. He's there to prove that growing up doesn't have to suck.
- The children in the closet were never real, just symbols to show Coraline that staying in the Other World won't solve anything.
- All very interesting, but I think the part about the ghost children is off. Everything in the Other World that didn't come from the real world is a construct by the Other Mother, and the only reason the Other Mother makes something is to entice Coraline to stay (which the children wouldn't). I believe a better way of looking at them to fit your theory would be that one, they are real, and two, they serve as examples of the horrible consequences of refusing to grow up and staying dependant.
- Think about this, Coraline want everything to be better but she never put in the effort in the real world and had the other mother do it for her in the other world. Then at the end she learned to put in the effort herself to better. Notice at the end when she grows up to make the best out of her situation the real world starts to become more colorful.
- Not to mention that Bobinski is blue... perhaps a relative of Sith's?
The ghost children still have scraps of memories, even though the time since their death/capture have erased most of the details, and it's likely that they, like Coraline, regretted their decision to stay or didn't understand the choice they were making. Once a Beldam finds a child who's willing to accept her, she's at least partially sated and perhaps even goes into semi-complacency as they feed on the child's adoration.
Of course, any kid who'd be willing to go along with this would have at least one screw loose, and as we see the Beldam's "love" culminates in her devouring the children: In an ironic twist, being "loved" by a child prevents the Beldam from draining and killing them, giving the child enough time to become warped by eldritch magic and eventually devour the Beldam, becoming the new Other Mother.
This is how the Other Mother from the book/movie could both have a mother and killed her despite being a horrific inhuman monster, possibly keeping the previous Beldam alive and draining her slowly while the new Beldam got used to her new power/lured in more children. As noted above the root of Beldam has a male equivalent in Belsire, so it's entirely possible that there are male Other "Mothers" (or Other Fathers) who evolved from abducted boys.
- The passage to the Other World in Coraline and the Knightsbridge are somewhat similar, don't you think?
- Both books have a door motif, either literal or metaphorical doors.
- Maybe the door in Coraline was made by someone from Door's family, in a similar way to the portal Door creates to send away Croup, Vandemar and Islington? Wait a minute...
- The Cat could be a benevolent and more intelligent cousin of the Beast of London, who is a great example of It Can Think.
- The Beldam may be a relative of the Shepherds...
- Was because she can only take one child at a time, and the sweet ghost girl found the door first.
- An adaptation inspired by [2], featuring one or multiple characters from the film grown up and dealing with a resurgent threat from the Other World. Gameplay could be similar to Amnesia to increse the tension from being defenseless, and with lighter and softer content to best suit the film's content as Silent Hill's gun and melee fighting would be largely out of place here. Doesn't mean it has to be less scary, however.
- Typically, cults attract converts by presenting a happy façade behind what is actually a creepy Police State like community where Happiness Is Mandatory. The other mother spoils Coraline at first and creates "other" versions of Coraline's family and the tenants. She's trying to pull Coraline away from her real family (much like the cult forces people to break contact with family members they deem to be "supressive persons"), and make the ultimate sacrifice of having buttons replace her eyes, the permanent and expensive equivalent for full conversion. Gaiman's family converted to Scientology when he was a small child, and he can't really speak out against the cult openly for fear of being cut out of his family, so the story represents his experiences of having his parents be replaced by Stepford Smilers who try to pull him out of the real world.