Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 American fantasy film, written by Tim Burton and Caroline Thompson, and directed by Burton. The film features Johnny Depp as the titular Edward, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest and Anthony Michael Hall. The plot revolves around a man named Edward, an inventor's creation, who has dangerous shears and scissors for hands, and appears frightening, who is adopted into a colorful, but stereotypically suburban, family.

The film is a comedy-drama set in an exaggerated and highly stereotypical vision of American suburbia and the typical families that inhabit it. It intentionally combines clichés and styles from both the 1950s, early 1960s and the late 1980s. The concept, and many of the motifs of Edward Scissorhands can be compared to the English Gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the French legend of Beauty and the Beast. Edward Scissorhands was a modest box office hit, grossing $56 million worldwide. Critics acclaimed the film as a timeless tale of friendship; it is usually cited as one of Burton's greatest films. The director cites Edward Scissorhands as epitomizing his most personal work.

Plot

The film opens with an elderly woman reciting a story of a man named Edward (Johnny Depp), the creation of an inventor (Vincent Price), who unfortunately died before he could give Edward hands. Later scenes show that this inventor had been inspired to make an artificial man by the anthropomorphic appearance of his other inventions. He had raised Edward as his son and tutored him in various subjects, but died of a cardiac arrest while in the act of offering a pair of hands to Edward.

In a flashback immediately following the opening, local Avon saleswoman Peg Boggs (Wiest) fails to make any profits in her neighborhood. Driven by a whim, she visits a pseudo-medieval mansion on a hill. Once inside, she finds Edward, a friendless, pallid youth having scissors in place of hands. She decides to take him home and adopts him into her family. Thus, Edward is forced to adjust to new surroundings. He quickly befriends Peg's son, Kevin (Robert Oliveri) and after an initial misstep, her daughter Kim (Winona Ryder).

Peg's conformist neighbors, while initially curious of her visitor, become thrilled at Ed's masterful skills at hedge clipping and haircutting. However, two of the townspeople — a religious fanatic named Esmeralda (O-Lan Jones) and Kim's thuggish boyfriend Jim (Anthony Michael Hall) — dislike him immediately. The resident town slattern, Joyce (Kathy Baker) suggests that Edward opens a haircutting salon with her, as a ruse to pull him aside from the others. While examining a proposed site, she attempts to seduce him — confusing Edward, who escapes the room in a state of panic. Edward attempts to bring up the subject of her actions while the family is having dinner, but no one reacts to the news.