Art review Homely horrors from auteur of American gothic are forgettable fun

In Tim Burton's film Ed Wood, the gloriously talentless titular director of Plan 9 from Outer Space meets Orson Welles, his polar opposite. Welles was the ultimate auteur, a film-maker who imposed a singular vision on all his productions. Is Burton an auteur too, as the Design Museum's director has it, and as this efficiently kooky show takes for granted? If he is, he has turned the gothic into a brand, projecting such a sharply stylised version of homely horror that he can imprint it on almost any material and deliver the outlandish as bankable.

- Jonathan Jones

This exhibition is a world-touring event devised by Burton's 'in-house curatorial team' and making its final stop here. That accounts for the easily packed-up look of it all, and its soft-centred PR feel. It doesn't ask tough questions, such as how Burton works with technical crews or why his later output has been so uneven.

Burton was not born, we learn, in a cobweb-covered gothic castle on the edge of town but in Burbank, California. That this was a suburban hell is made clear in the first space, where his early drawings, from an anti-litter poster to experiments in horror, are hung on a set of identical suburban house fronts.

Other youthful drawings show him already fascinated by Halloween, portraying comedy monsters in cartoons that owe a lot to Edward Gorey and Charles Addams. Horror memorabilia on display include a beautiful art nouveau edition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven and a poster for the cult film The Oblong Box, starring Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.