1988 in Film: Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

Tim Burton’s 1988 Beetlejuice fuses comedy and horror to create a classic film. With Michael Keaton in the titular role, we delve into what happens to humans after death and the spooky realm where they meet in-between.

Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) are a lowkey couple in a rural farmhouse, living out their dreams. They are fixing up their house, planning to grow their family, when they die in an accident. The couple then finds themselves relegated to their once peaceful home as ghosts and guests to the Deetz family.

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Beetlejuice is Burton’s film directly following Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, which was a children’s movie with some horror elements to it. Similarly, Beetlejuice blends genres to make it something not easy to articulate. It is not a straight horror film, but there are ghoulish and spooky elements. From the fact our protagonists are ghosts, to the after-life world they travel to, to the sandworm that is never really explained.

The film, in the United States, is rated PG, and I can only imagine how many children were scarred by this film – the same way many were by Gremlins. The film tackles heavy subject matter. It is easy to immediately sympathize with Barbara and Adam, not just for the whole being dead thing, but for all that they did not accomplish. The film starts with them working on their dreams, talking about having a family, and within minutes all of that is thrown out the window.

Then there are the other dead people. We see people who have died in all sorts of manners: shark attack, asphyxiation while eating, and a plane crash. But then we learn that all people who died by their own hands – the receptionist, the messenger, even their case manager – are doomed to serve for the entirety of their after-life. As children, we do not necessarily pick up on this fact, but as an adult, it is a bit jarring. Then, we also learn that souls which have been exorcised float in a weird room, lost in the after-life. It sure takes away the bright lights and pearly gates we are accustomed to envision.

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While there are plenty of dark and dreary elements, the film is chalked-full of comedy. For starters, you have the brilliant and hilarious Catherine O’Hara doing what she does best: letting loose and going big. When we are first introduced to Delia, she is vain and neurotic and a real *personality.* From her dramatically trying to shut off the TV, half-asleep on valium or her losing her mind when her husband tries to damper her creative spirit: “I’m here with you. I will live with you in this hellhole, but I must express myself. If you don’t let me gut out this house and make it my own, I will go insane, AND I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME!”

But there is no comedic moment as glorious as the “Day-O” dance number at dinner. In the film, Delia and Charles are having a dinner party for their fancy city friends. That is when Adam and Barbara strike. Uncontrollably, Delia and then Charles start dancing and lip-syncing to “Day-O” by Harry Belafonte. O’Hara is incredible in this scene. Full-on dancing while her face read, “What the Hell is happening?!” Pure genius.

O’Hara isn’t the only one taking big risks and sticking those landings like Kerri Strug. As Beetlejuice, you would assume Keaton would have more screen time. Instead, Beetlejuice is a lurking presence, being seen when he wants to be seen. At the time, Keaton was most known for the 1983 comedy Mr. Mom or from the appearances – including Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. In this, Keaton does not play a likable character. He is a trickster and a liar. But it is in those lies and manipulation that Keaton shined, ab-libbing lines quipping, “I attended Juilliard… I’m a graduate of the Harvard business school. I travel quite extensively. I lived through the Black Plague and had a pretty good time during that…” While hilarious, this is also Beetlejuice – a fast talker who will have you spinning in circles and then take advantage of you in your hour of need. Keaton has said this is his favorite film of his own. And you can easily see why.

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In a 2021 gaze, the film does have some problems. There is the insensitivity when it comes to some peoples’ deaths that at times comes across as making a mockery of pain. Some of the deaths are also a bit racist and/or prejudiced. If you know, you know. There are also elements of the film not entirely explained in the film. What is that sand worm? What does it do? Why was Barbara and Adam messing with their faces to become hideous beings a thing? I understand that was to scare people, but also, why that? Then there is the big problem of Beetlejuice wanting to marry Lydia, who is a straight-up child. It’s creepy and gross. No other way of putting it.