20 Years of 'The Polar Express': Why the creepy Christmas film remains my favourite

Every time someone asks what my favourite Christmas film is, I always say The Polar Express, and have done since I was about 5. But every time I give my answer, I’m always met with comments about how creepy and weird it is, particularly the animation. And yes, it is a bit creepy and weird - the characters look like wax figures slowly melting away before our eyes. However, it’s the film’s very nature of being slightly eerie and spooky that keeps me coming back every year and is the key to getting me feeling festive.

The Polar Express came out in 2004 when I was about a year and a half old, so too young to remember it's release. But in the years after that as I was growing up, my Grandad would always put the film on at Christmas time. He had a TV that by today’s standards would be considered quite small, but back then seemed huge – especially to a little girl. He also had a surround sound system in the lounge and the combination of that and the seemingly large TV made watching The Polar Express a full body experience. I vividly remember watching the beginning of the film as the magic train made its way to the boy’s house and everything was rattling away. The young boy had a metal dish leaning against his radiator and a toy plane hanging from his ceiling that shook violently, creating sounds that were so loud and visceral that it very much felt like the train was about to stop off at my Grandad’s too. It’s a sequence that to this day still creeps me out a little bit – the idea of a magic ghost-like train bundling down your street out of nowhere on Christmas Eve to take you away whilst everyone sleeps is not exactly settling.

The Polar Express (2004) poster

However, when the boy decides to get on the train, guided by the friendly but intimidating conductor, he is enveloped by the warm light of the carriages that contrasts with the very snowy and cold outside, as well as by the sounds of singing by the other children who have also been picked up for the magical ride. You get the sense that even though he’s not quite sure what’s going on, he’ll be safe.

On the ride to the North Pole, the boy (his name in the credits is just ‘hero boy’) and his friends are met with multiple challenges and dangerous scenarios that make the whole journey quite anxiety inducing to say the least. First the young girl (again, just named ‘hero girl’ in the credits) loses her ticket and the boy thinks she’s going to be thrown off the train as she is taken away by the conductor. Once the boy finds her ticket, he tries to get it to her by following them up along the roof of the train. Instead of immediately finding them, he finds a homeless man crouching by a fire. The man’s coarse and drunken voice, and questions about whether the boy believes in ghosts, makes him one of the creepier aspects of the film – not least because he disappears into literal snow revealing that he is in fact a ghost himself. Despite his ghoulish nature, he pledges to help the boy find the girl and even saves the boy from falling off the train, as though he is a guardian angel. No one character in this film is entirely bad or mean spirited no matter how freaky they might seem initially. There is good in every one of them, and that goodness is what endeared me to characters like the homeless ghost despite the fact that he might initially seem better off in a Halloween film.

Once the boy and girl reunite and help save the train from falling through a frozen river (as I said, a lot goes on in this film), the conductor returns them to their seats which involves going through an ‘abandoned toys’ carriage attached to the locomotive. This scene is so creepy that I cannot help but think the director Robert Zemeckis had his heart set on scarring a generation of children. Not only do the children walk past abandoned clown toys and sweet dolls that don’t look so sweet anymore, but also a Scrooge puppet that begins shouting at the boy. Even if it is revealed that the homeless ghost is controlling the puppet, it is a terrifying scene. Every year I am glad that they follow that sequence with the emotional and heart-warming song ‘When Christmas Comes to Town’ – it’s like a comforting embrace. But even still, the appearances made by these creepy toys reminds me of Christmas decorations my family has acquired or inherited over the years that are also creepy, and every Christmas I can’t help but put them out – it wouldn’t be Christmas without them.

The creepy Scrooge puppet... you're welcome.

The most emotional scene for me in the film is when the train arrives at the North Pole and that wonderful score starts playing. The golden Christmas lights that light up all of the mini factories and homes of the elves is exactly how I wanted to imagine the North Pole as a child. Everything is warm and cosy and magical looking. Of course, however, even if the train made it to the North Pole on time, problems still arise for the young characters. The boy and girl, along with their timid friend Billy, get caught on a carriage that disconnects from the rest of the train and they have to find their way to back to the town centre in time to see Santa. They walk past an elf-sized record shop that’s playing ‘Silver Bells’, only that the record begins to skip and repeats the same line, “ring-a-ling”, over and over. This part for me was always much more creepier than them having just walked over slippery train tracks that had an infinite drop beneath them. I recently came across this thread on Twitter that had me howling because I was glad not to be the only one who thought about the record skipping scene a lot…

From Twitter/X

The children then accidentally stumble across the elves’ control centre where they are signing off on the naughty and nice lists before Santa sets off. In front of the elves (and children as they hide but watch on) are dozens of screens showing children all over the world sleeping or perhaps still awake and being naughty. You can’t help but think of the infamous lyrics ‘he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake’ when you watch this scene - it really plays on the fear we had as children that Santa and his elves just might be watching you all the time. And even our 'hero boy', 'hero girl' and Billy look creeped out. But thankfully, by watching the elves leave via their rocket-tube transport, the children are able to follow suit and make their way directly back to the town centre in time to see Santa and eventually make their way back home.

All of these creepy and sometimes scary scenes in The Polar Express are part of the key elements that make this Christmas film so nostalgic and festive for me. There are many elements of Christmas that can be considered quite creepy, and so I think part of the nostalgia for the holiday season can come from being slightly spooked. Like the act of being a bit scared when you were little of particular Christmas images (mine would often be religious images found in the local church lit hauntingly by candles), your grandparents’ retro ornaments or Father Christmas himself – these make up a large portion of my memories and subsequent nostalgia (and maybe yours too) for the holiday season, and this is exactly what The Polar Express and the scenes I have recounted seem to pick up upon.

I remember dreading Christmas Eve because I could never sleep properly and as we were always told, Father Christmas wouldn’t come if you were awake. What if I needed the toilet just as he was delivering the presents and I accidentally saw him? What if he puts me on the naughty list for accidentally making my brother cry that one time, because he would have seen that because he’s watching me all the time, right? Was that a bell I just heard or my imagination? The Polar Express draws on these memories and reminds me so much of being a child; the slight anxiety but also the excitedness you felt on the lead up to Christmas was always so palpable.

As I get older and further into my twenties, I find myself desperately clinging to the things that remind me of being a child and at Christmastime nothing does that quite like watching The Polar Express, creepy scenes and all.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year if you celebrate!

Disclaimer: Images are not my own.