Like most dark fantasy stories, "Coraline" is structured as a fairy tale. It's a story about a child who gets lost, then encounters a witch who tempts them with a better life, before trying to kill them. Directed by Henry Selick and produced by Laika, the film uses the medium of stop motion animation to sell the slow, creeping horror of the other world Coraline visits. The animation style adds to the uncanniness of the world, the feeling that something isn't quite right, that the people may look normal, but hide something sinister. It blends whimsy and darkness in a way that invites audiences of all ages, but still exposes them to many horrors -- including the very relatable horror of growing up.
Many of Hayao Miyazaki's movies can be considered dark fantasy, from "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" to "Spirited Away," but none exemplify the best the genre has to offer quite like "Princess Mononoke." We have a fantasy world of gods and demons and spirits, a prince that undergoes a transformation, a boar monster, a romance, themes about the destruction of nature, and some of the darkest imagery in a Ghibli movie. Put all that together you have a recipe for a great dark fantasy movie.
The film resembles a fairy tale in its story, which follows a young prince who accidentally gets involved in a fight between forest spirits and a village of humans who are exploiting the resources of the earth. The relationship between Ashita and San resembles that of the protagonists of "Beauty and the Beast." The many critters and supernatural creatures that populate "Princess Mononoke" make it feel like a fantasy adventure, one with telepathic wolves and demons, but the tone and use of dark imagery definitely veers toward the dark fantasy genre. Indeed, the film's portrayal of nature's wrath as a source of horror even served as inspiration for "Godzilla Minus One."
Like the best dark fantasy tales, the commentary and themes of "Princess Mononoke" are not clear-cut, nor does the film offer a clean happy ending. The film's characters have nuance and complexity that traditional fairy tales don't often have -- like Lady Eboshi, the antagonist of the film, being portrayed as a complex individual who is doing bad things but to accomplish something good -- and the ending offers no simple solution or answers. There cannot be a happy ending when nature and humans fight, and the film leaves the dispute unresolved, focusing instead on the things worth fighting for despite the darkness.