Emily's last name is Merrimack.
The Land of the Dead is Heaven
It might sound weird, but think about it! Out of all the people in the land of the dead, Emily is the only one who doesn't seem to be having an awesome time. It might not have the decor most people picture Heaven having, but the residents can do anything and not feel pain, freely communicate with animals (which many people think would be awesome in Heaven), and when Mayhew gets there, he even says that he never felt better in his life. At least one resident (Elder Gutknecht) has expressed confusion as to why they anyone would want to leave. True, Lord Barkis doesn't seem to deserve to go to Heaven, but we never actually see him going to the same place as the other dead, we only see him being dragged off to some unknown fate. Emily and Victoria are sisters.
Think about it. According to Emily's story, her family was very wealthy until Barkis killed her and took all of the money. Meanwhile, the Everglots are revealed to be going through a recession after losing all of their money. Don't you think there's a connection between these two subplots?- Perhaps, if not sisters, given Emily seemed to have been dead for some time, but at least cousins with Emily being born to the Everglots' older sibling.
- Maybe Victoria wasn't born yet when Emily died.
- Barkess is still alive so Emily's death had to be fairly recent.
- But maybe Barkess was younger when Emily died.
- Wouldn't have Emily said something when she saw Victoria?
- Not if she didn't recognize her. Plus, keep in mind that dead people can't age.
Victoria is adopted.
While Victor and his father look and act alike, Victoria does not look or act like either parent. Victoria could have been the orphaned daughter of a fellow old money family who was taken in by the Everglots to have a successor. Victoria being an adopted ward rather than a blood relative would also explain her parents' harshness towards her, while Victor has kinder parents. After all, in Victorian times, adoption was less common and not the intimate process it is today. The Corpse Bride is a sequel to Frankenweenie.
Both films star a protagonist called Victor, and age aside, they look virtually identical.- I presume amnesia and a time machine are somehow involved...
- Or Frankenweenie is a sequel to The Corpse Bride, and F's Victor is a descendant of CB's Victor.
- Add in Nightmare Before Christmas as a sequel to The Corpse Bride. Tim Burton once said "All stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not always in that order."
Victor and Victoria will have a daughter named Emily
Emily was very important to both of them and this would make for a Heartwarming Moment.- Doubles as a bit of Fridge Brilliance when you consider that in one version of the Jewish tale this movie was based on, the living bride names her first daughter after the dead bride to honor her.
- Perhaps that Emily could be the Emily, reincarnated (as some other tropers have stated that the end could be either heaven or reincarnation).
The Maggot being a Peter Lorre impersonation was intentional...
... and it was originally going to be accompanied by impersonations of Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr., to make for a shout-out to the Route 66 episode "Lizard's Leg & Owlet's Wing".The Land of the Dead is actually Planet Limbo set in the Victorian era
Some of the citizens of the Land of the Dead were never actually alive to begin with
The Maggot and the Black Widow spiders come to mind, since they wouldn't talk if they were simply reanimated versions of their respective species like Scraps. There's also Bonejangles, who, if he was alive to begin with, would've looked out of place in the movie's setting of a Victorian village, wearing a bowler hat and being a jazz singer (that, and assuming that it isn't just a nickname, his name "Bonejangles" is probably something that no one in the Land of the Living would have been called).- Bonejangles isn't likely to be that, but he would indeed be out of place, so there are a few possibilities coming to my mind: 1° He was a jazz singer from somewhere else who just happened to die in this village while he was on a trip. It has been stated that it's the place where you're buried that defines where you wake up in the Underworld, not obligatorily the place where you spent most of your life. 2° He was form the village but not a jazz singer: he's been dead for quite a while, and traveled to other towns of the Underworld. He came to meet some dead american jazz singer, was interested in that, and then came back to his hometown. 3° He's one of the american dead jazz singers I was talking about, ended up upon his death in the underworld town behind his hometown but decided to emigrate to England.
- Perhaps he changed his name after he died to honor Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, but with a sardonic twist. Or perhaps he's the nearly-anonymous dancing hobo the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band once sang a song about, or just a nearly-anonymous wandering hobo with a love of jazz, playing a never-ending gig in his personal Heaven.
The Maggot, the Black Widow, and various Ravens can travel between the Lands of the Living at the Dead freely.
Compare and contrast the Cat from Coraline. Although, unlike said Cat, the Maggot is observed speaking in the Land of Mortals and appears to be understood by at least one living human. The film takes place in the same universe as The Crow (1994)
Crows are ubiquitous, and signify some interaction with the the Land of the Dead, and appear to be living creatures on both sides of the veil. The spell that Elder Gutknecht used to send Victor and Emily back to the Land of the Living comes from the egg if a crow.Emily is partially mummified.
For all the years Emily has apparently been dead, she is quite well-preserved. It is implied that her body was never found and thus never properly buried. In certain situations, natural mummification can occur when bodies are left to the elements. Her skin does appear more desiccated than that of some of the other dead people (her prominent collarbone and sunken cheeks). Though some areas exposed to the surface like her left arm rotted away to the bone, most of her simply dried out and the decomposition process was halted, which is why, although Barkis claims her murder happened "many years ago" she is still recognizable. This film is a prequel to Beetlejuice (1988). (CROSS POST)
The Land of the Dead is what the Netherworld used to be before it became a bureaucracy. Beetlejuice discovered the marriage loophole by discovering the events that allowed Emily to traverse between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead, discovering that it was possible for a ghost like him to "get out" of the Netherworld.