“These aren’t my rules. Come to think of it, I don’t have any rules.” – Beetlejuice
(Quick behind the scenes type note, due to Shocktober involving the watching of 13 movies and writing up reviews of each, I need to get started on the prep work usually in early September. So, I’m actually writing this on Sept 3, a few days before I see Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice on opening day.)
There’s a tinge of embarrassment that hits me every time I watch Beetlejuice. I remember very well back in 1988, and it’s crazy how that was 36 years ago, this was the first Tim Burton film I ever saw, and the second Michael Keaton movie I watched. Much as I loved Beetlejuice, I was outraged that Burton and Keaton were the ones anointed with the holy mission of bringing a serious Batman movie to the screens. (I might as well admit that my rage rekindled when I learned that Prince was providing some original songs to the Batman soundtrack.) I was, of course, wrong on all counts and immediately recanted. Their Batman film was an instant classic and is pretty much the Batman movie I measure all others by. Keaton IS the standard. I’d mistakenly written him off as a comedy actor, in reality, he is one of Hollywood’s most under-rated talents. From Beetlejuice to Batman to his menacing performance in Pacific Heights to the Oscar winning Birdman, he’s what I consider to be an actor’s actor.
Beetlejuice became an instant classic, due not only to Keaton’s performance and Burton’s direction but in watching this film a few days ago for the first time in years for Shocktober, I was struck by the design aesthetic. This may well be the most Burtonesque of Burton’s live action films. The most recognisably Burton movie, outside of his animated ones.
Beetlejuice is a haunted house movie in reverse. Normally, we see an innocent family move in to a house where they’re tormented by spirits who just won’t lie still. That’s the stereotypical trope. Burton takes a skewed view of this and turns the whole thing on its head.
Meet the Maitlands, a loving young couple, childless, and enjoying the start of their vacation at home, working on the house. Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) need to go to the local general store for some supplies, when they’re killed in a car accident. At first, they don’t know they’re dead and the realisation is one they find a little hard to accept. They discover a book called The Handbook for the Recently Deceased, which helps them adapt.
Their house is sold to a truly awful family from New York, the Deetzes. Head of the family (in name only) Charles (Jeffrey Jones) his pretentious artistic wife Delia (Catherine O’Hara) and their Goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) who dresses all in black at all times, and is obsessed with death and darkness. Delia brings in a repugnant and equally pretentious interior designer Otho (Glenn Shadix). The Maitlands can’t tolerate living with them, so they decide as they’re ghosts, to scare them away – but at first, only Lydia is open enough to psychic phenomena to be able to see them.
Their house is now a new wave, post modern nightmare of a building. Delia and Otho have gone absolutely nuts, and the place is decorated with Delia’s unsettling artwork. The Maitlands are now desperate and go against their ghost social worker’s advice and answer an ad for a bio-exorcist called Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) who’s rude, crude and hilarious. He tries to take care of the Deetz family, but only succeeds in arousing their curiosity.
Otho claims to have paranormal abilities and having heard Lydia talk about her new ghost friends, he tries to conduct a séance, but being an oaf, he mistakenly conducts an exorcism. Lydia, in a panic, summons Beetlejuice who only agrees to help if she’ll marry him. Marrying a human would allow Beetlejuice to wreak chaos and havoc in the mortal world.
The Maitlands intervene just in time to prevent the ceremony being completed, and the Maitlands and Deetzes find they can co-exist in peace.
I’m looking forward to the sequel, after all, I’ve waited long enough and by the time this is published, I’ll have seen it and the review should be available right around here.
Altogether now...."AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYOOOOOOOO"