Random Small But Chilling Details In 'Coraline' (17 items)

(#4) A Hand-Shaped Lightning Bolt Signals The Beldam's Evil Scheme

One blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment comes when the Beldam tries to convince Coraline to play a game. When the button-eyed matriarch suggests hide-and-seek in the rain, Coraline asks, "What rain?" just before a lightning bolt cuts through the sky outside the window.

If paused at just the right moment, the lightning bolt appears in the shape of the Beldam's clawlike hand, demonstrating just how tight her grip on Coraline and the Other World really is.
(#1) The 'Welcome Home' Cake Proves The Beldam Is Lying

While the "Welcome Home" cake the Beldam makes for Coraline looks delicious (especially for being made out of plasticine), the piping on top may hold a clue about the Beldam's true intentions.

According to Redditor u/philo-soph-y:

The “welcome home” cake features a double loop on the O. According to Graphology, a double loop on a lowercase O means that the person who wrote it is lying. There is only one double loop, meaning she is welcome but she is not home.
(#6) The Silhouetted Portraits In The Dining Room Could Be The Ghost Children

In the dining room of the Other Mother's house hang three silhouetted portraits of children. These more than likely represent the ghost children, the Beldam's previous victims whose spirits are still trapped inside a dark, hidden room in the Other Pink Palace.

Had Coraline accepted the Beldam's offer, she likely would have appeared as a fourth silhouette on the wall.
(#12) Jack Skellington Is Hiding In An Egg Yolk

Fans of stop-motion animation may appreciate this hidden reference to one of director Henry Selick's other films. When the Beldam cracks an egg to make an omelet for Coraline, the yolk briefly appears as the face of Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, another Selick-directed feature.

Within the context of the movie, this detail may even be read as a harbinger of the Beldam's malevolence and deteriorating form. During the scene in question, she is taller and more skeletal than her original "Other Mother" form, but later in the film, she transforms even further into a terrifying needle-spider.
(#17) A Photo Proves That Coraline Had Brown Hair Before The Move

Coraline's distinctive blue hair is only mentioned once in the film, namely when she lists the similarities between herself and the mysterious doppelgänger doll Wybie brings her from his grandmother's trunk. While the audience can assume her hair is dyed, since her father's hair is brown and her mother's is black, a family photo in her parents' bedroom gives us a glimpse at pre-dye Coraline.

The picture, taken at the Detroit Zoo where they bought the infamous snow globe, shows a younger-looking Coraline with brown hair. Some fans have theorized that Coraline's parents may have let her dye her hair blue to make up for their move to Oregon.
(#13) The Pattern On Coraline's Chair May Be A Reference To 'The Shining'

Coraline is about as close to a horror movie as a children's film can get, but it may contain a reference to one of the most well-known horror movies ever made.

YouTuber CZsWorld points out that the back of the chair where Coraline's doll sits features a small, flower-shaped pattern. This small design is nearly identical to the one on the back of Jack Torrance's chair in The Shining, seen during one of his "all work and no play" writing sessions.