Beetlejuice

"Go ahead, make my millennium."

Adam (Baldwin) and Barbara (Davis) Maitland die in a car accident.  Despite their deaths, they are still decorating their home and trying to make the best of their situation.  Their idyllic afterlife is jeopardized when their home is sold.  The new owners, Charles (Jones) and Delia (O'Hara) Deetz are very different from the Maitland's.  Charles wanted a home away from the city to relax, and Delia is sculptor looking to change everything about the house.

As Delia and her designer Otho (Shadix) start changing the house, Adam and Barbara get desperate.  They have a "Handbook for the Recently Deceased" and a case worker, Juno (Sidney), but ultimately they are forced to deal with the Deetz's alone.  Charles and Delia can't see them, and are not scared by their efforts.  However, Charles' daughter Lydia (Ryder) notices their actions and is fascinated by them.  Adam and Barbara find an advertisement for a bio-exorcist, Betelgeuse (Keaton), who guarantees results.  Can they find a way to get rid of the Deetz's before they are exorcised from their home?


This was the first Tim Burton film to feature the dark and weird tropes that would populate the majority of his future films.  This was his second time in the director's chair.  After the success of his directorial debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, he was considered a bankable director and was able to select his next film.  He was intrigued by Michael McDowell's script for Beetlejuice, a dark and serious story.  The studio hired Larry Wilson to help rewrite the script and give it a little more comedy.  For the screenplay, they were replaced by Warren Skaaren.  Ultimately the film is dark comedy with lots of stylized details.

Despite being the title character, Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice is only in about 18 minutes of the film.  He is disgusting (physically, as well as his actions) and over the top, and yet, he is a fascinating character.  Keaton is clearly having a ball, and has stated that this is his favorite film/performance.  Keaton also starred in Burton's next film, Batman (and it's sequel Batman Returns).  Adam Baldwin and Geena Davis are the yuppie couple turned ghosts... they are the most normal characters, while also getting some of the more interesting visual effects (such as when they mold their faces to scare the Deetz's).  Winona Ryder is dark and moody as Lydia, but is also the most rational character.  Ryder starred in two more Burton films: Edward Scissorhands and Frankenweenie.  Jeffrey Jones is the stressed out Charles, while Catherine O'Hara is his artistic wife Delia.  They play off each other well and are a good juxtaposition to the ghost (as well as their marriages).  Jones reunited with Burton in Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow, while O'Hara has appeared in Frankenweenie (she also was involved in Nightmare Before Christmas, which Burton wrote but did not direct).

The ghost world is setup like a doctor's office, where everyone is waiting for their number to be called.  All of the ghosts, with the exception of the Maitland's, show how they died... for example, a magician's assistant is in 2 separate pieces and a man is flat with visible tire marks from where he was run-over by a car.  Everything is stylized and some places features stop-motion animation.  At the time this was very unique, but looking at it now, it is clearly a Burton film (has the same visual style as other Burton films).

The film is a nice mix of creepy and funny (like most future Burton films) and interesting enough to keep you entertained.

The film was a success, and lead to a cartoon TV show focused on Beetlejuice and Lydia that ran from 1989 to 1991.  And since the 1990s, Burton has talked about making a sequel.

Beetlejuice (1988) 92 minutes
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Alec Baldwin as Adam Maitland
Geena Davis as Barbara Maitland
Jeffrey Jones as Charles Deetz
Catherine O'Hara as Delia Deetz
Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz
Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse
Annie McEnroe as Jane Butterfield
Glenn Shadix as Otho
Sylvia Sidney as Juno