Deep Dive: Wes Looks at Beetlejuice

Happy Halloween my friends and welcome to this Patreon exclusive bonus article. Today, we’re stepping away from the worlds of Walt Disney Pictures and DC Comics to look at one of my personal Halloween favorites. And of course, much like our last film, Frankenweenie, it comes from the delightfully twisted mind of Tim Burton. Today, we’re looking at the beloved 1988 Tim Burton classic, Beetlejuice. I just want to say right up front, I LOVE this movie. Not only does it hold a special place in my heart for sentimental reasons, something I’ll be elaborating on in the article itself, but it is also just a fun an hilarious romp that showcases Tim Burton’s trademark gothic style without shame. Seriously, this movie is full frontal Tim Burton. It’s weird, it’s creepy, it’s morbid and it isn’t apologizing for it. Our story brings us to a quiet Connecticut suburb where we meet happily married couple, Adam and Barbara Maitland, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. After a car crash on their way home from the hardware store, Adam and Barbara find themselves back at home with no memory of how they got there, and weirder still, no reflection. Stranger yet, any time they try to leave the house, they end up transported to a strange hellscape crawling with giant man-eating sand worms. Adam and Barbara both come to the same conclusion, they both died in that crash and now they’re stuck in their house as ghosts. Well that sucks, but Adam and Barbara seem to be determined to make the best of a bad situation, that is until the Deetz family, a family of New Yorkers who plan to gut the place and fill it with tacky modern art, moves in. While the Maitlands do end up befriending Lydia, the Deeetz’s teenage goth daughter, they still aren’t keen on spending an eternity with these weirdos and try to use their newfound ghost powers to scare them off. When Adam and Barbara come up short, a self-proclaimed Bio-Exorcist (I.E. someone who specializes in getting rid of the living) named Beetlejuice (technically spelled Betelguese, but I’ll be using the title spelling for the sake of simplicity) enters the picture. Beetlejuice is confident in his abilities to get the job done, but he’s also clearly a gross pervert and an unhinged psychopath so the Maitlands want nothing to do with him. However, after a few more failed attempts to get the Deetz family out of the house, it’s time for the Ghost with the Most to come out and play. However, unleashing a lunatic like Beetlejuice may prove more trouble than it’s worth. Let’s take a look at this Tim Burton classic and see for ourselves.

Main Character:

I’m honestly not sure if the Maitlands or Lydia fit best in the main character slot, so I’ve opted to talk about them both in this section. We’ll start with Lydia, played by the always great Winona Ryder. A very early film in her career, Ryder was only sixteen when she played Lydia. In any case, I like Lydia Deetz. She’s definitely not a happy young woman, but she is still a sweet girl. I like that she’s not afraid of ghosts, but actually thinks it’s cool that she shares her home with them and once she befriends the Maitlands, does her best to help them get what they want. I’ll be honest, I probably would have asked out a girl like Lydia when I was in high school. What can I say, I had a thing for goth girls at the time. We’ll be getting a little more into Lydia’s character in a later section, so let’s move on to the Maitlands.

Truth be told, I don’t have a ton to say about Adam and Barbara Maitland. They’re just a happily married couple who die, become ghosts and want these New York weirdos out of their house. That’s sort of where their characters begin and end. You can understand where they’re coming from since both clearly took a lot of pride in the upkeep of their home and hate to see these New York weirdos tear it apart. Something I took note of in this version is just how in love with one another they are. It’s not in an over-the-top fashion like Gomez and Morticia Addams, but it is nice to see a couple so happy and so very much in love. There’s this one bit that is a nice demonstration of this. Not long after Adam and Barbara come to grips with their situation, Adam theorizes since he must now spend an eternity in the house with Barbara, this must be heaven. That’s so sweet. Here they are in a shitty situation, but since Adam is with the woman he loves, it still feels like heaven. Get you someone who sees you the say Adam sees Barbara, seriously.

Villain:

It's Showtime! Yes friends, we finally get to talk about the man himself, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Interestingly enough, I was not introduced to the character through this movie, but rather through the animated series that came after. In that series, while still rude and zany, Beetlejuice was much more of a good guy and a friend to Lydia. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the Beetle man was originally the villain of the piece. Beetlejuice is, of course, played brilliantly by the one and only Michael Keaton. One year before becoming iconic for taking up the mantle of the legendary dark knight, Keaton became iconic for effectively playing The Joker. Even though Beetlejuice is a gross pervert, you can’t help but have a blast watching him and a lot of that is down to Keaton, who is hamming it up like a champion in every scene he’s in. You might find this hard to believe, but the Beetle Man doesn’t even show up until the film is half over. However, this character is so much fun that you don’t really notice or care. However, just because he’s fun to watch, it doesn’t mean Beetlejuice is not a nasty customer. Apparently, he once worked in the afterlife bureaucracy, but went rogue and started marketing himself as a bio-exorcist, causing chaos and trouble for anyone unfortunate enough to summon him by saying his name three times. He’s not exactly content to stop once the job is done, he’s going to use his strange magic to wreak as much havoc as he can and the only way to reign in the chaos is to once again say his name three times. At one point he even conjures up a whorehouse. I would like to remind you all that this movie was adapted into a children's cartoon. Beetlejuice’s ultimate goal is to be free of that limitation, and the only way to do that is to get married. I guess the afterlife works a bit like immigration in that regard. For that reason, he starts manipulating Lydia into agreeing to marry him so he’ll save the Maitland’s from danger. One of the most iconic characters in cinema history, what else is there to say except, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

Side Characters:

We have a few fun side characters this time around. We’ll start with Charles Deetz, played by Jeffrey Jones. Charles Deetz is a former real estate developer who moved his family out to the suburbs so he can live the simple life. He’s actually not such a bad guy and generally normal compared to his daughter and his wife, both of whom are opposite shades of weird. He may have a tough time walking away from a moneymaking opportunity, but he ultimately means well.

Delia, Charles’ wife and Lydia’s stepmother played by Burton film regular Catherine O’Hara, is definitely more than a little unhinged. She fancies herself an artist and often comes across like a less murderous Cruella De Vil. She’s the sort of person who is, just a bit too much. She was clearly against the idea of moving and is the driving force behind gutting the place and doing an extreme remodel. Delia may be a lot to take in, but Catherine O’Hara’s performance is incredible. This woman is acting her ass off in every scene and I am here for it.

Never too far behind Delia is her personal interior designer, Otho, played wonderfully by the late great Glenn Shadix. Otho is a blast whenever he’s on screen. He thinks of himself as a jack-of-all trades and an expert in the paranormal, but clearly isn’t as smart as he thinks he is, something that often ends up having disastrous consequences.

Songs:

Beetlejuice is not a musical, at least this movie isn’t. There is a Beetlejuice musical out there and I’d love to comment on it, but sadly I haven’t yet seen it, though I’ve heard mostly good things. That said, I’d have been remiss if I didn’t comment on the use of the music of the great Harry Belafonte in this movie. Seriously, how many people of my generation know who Harry Belafonte is mainly because of this movie. Not me though, I know him because of The Muppet Show. This use of Belafonte’s music comes into play in two awesome scenes. The first is one of the Maitland’s earlier attempts to scare off the Deetz’s. As the Deetz family is hosting a lovely dinner party, Delia suddenly becomes possessed and starts singing and dancing to Harry Belafonte’s Banana Boat Song. The rest of the guest soon join in on the dance before they’re all attacked by shrimp monsters. The second is at the very end of the movie where the ghosts are now living in harmony with the family that moved into their home. Lydia aced a math test, and as a reward, Adam and Barbara levitate her into the air and have a dance party set to Jump in the Line. It’s a wonderfully fun moment, especially for yours truly. It was actually while watching this scene one Halloween night that one of my dear friends agreed to become my girlfriend. To this day, Halloween is our anniversary. Great stuff.

Memorable Scenes:

Probably the best scene is when we first see Beetlejuice in all his glory. Remember, the ghost with the most doesn’t show up until about half-way through, but there has still been plenty of buildup that indicates this guy is bad news. Once we finally see the guy, we now know that these warnings were not exaggerations as he shows himself to be loud, obnoxious, perverted and possessed of no concept of personal boundaries. When Adam inquires as to his qualifications, we get easily one of the best lines in the film. “Well… 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. I’ve seen the EXORCIST ABOUT A HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN TIMES, AND IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE IT… NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT YOU’RE TALKING TO A DEAD GUY… NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK? You think I’m qualified?” Absolutely beautiful.

Story:

This is normally a topic I’d save for the section where I talk about dark stuff, but there’s a lot of talk of suicide in this movie. Lydia often speaks of suicide as a means to escape and Otho casually jokes that those who take their own lives end up as civil servants in the afterlife, a lucky guess that ends up being correct. I’m sure I’m reading too much into this, but I think this movie is trying to say something on that subject. Lydia is constantly miserable and often contemplates taking her own life, but as we learn in this film, death will not solve your problems. In the case of the Maitlands, it actually created a lot more problems for them. The only way to deal with your problems is to keep moving forward and deal with them. Again, this is a stretch, particularly in this movie, but then, I’m also the guy who extrapolated that Dopey the Dwarf was secretly a woman and that Bugs Bunny is a cannibal so maybe I just have a tendency to think too much about this stuff

The Darkness Factor:

Yes, I know “The Darkness Factor” isn’t quite as snappy as “The Dark Disney Factor” but this film doesn’t have any D words that fit well enough so Darkness Factor it is. In any case, this is a Tim Burton movie so it’s loaded up to the brim with dark, morbid and gothic imagery. I mean, the film opens with our two main characters dying and finding themselves in a nightmare dimension populated by man eating sand worms that I can only assume is hell or just Tim Burton’s twisted subconscious, either would be equally terrifying. Let’s see, we got the beautifully disgusting looking denizens of the afterlife waiting room which include a green lady who slit her own wrists, a charred skeleton who apparently died from smoking too much, a dude with a shrunken head and a flat man who clearly got run over by a truck. This scene also introduces the idea of exorcism as “death for the dead.” Any ghost who gets exorcised ends up a withered, immobile husk for all eternity. Now that’s Hell. It’s especially unsettling when it happens to Adam and Barbara later in the film. The makeup affects are delightfully disturbing as they shrivel up like raisins. Even worse are Adam and Barbara’s various attempts to scare off the Deetz family, including tearing off one’s own face, removing one’s own head, putting one’s eyes in one’s mouth and… stretch out one’s face to look like a chicken… okay. But all that is nothing compared to what Beetlejuice is capable of. The second Lydia sets him free to save the Maitlands from exorcism, all hell breaks loose as Beetlejuice turns the house into his own twisted amusement park, turning his arms into hammers, making Otho wear out of date clothes, pulling Adam’s teeth and gums out of his mouth, it’s wild. However, I think most would agree that the scariest thing in the movie is the part where Beetlejuice turns into a giant snake and almost kills the Deetz family. Look at that thing. That is creepy even by Tim Burton standards.

Final Thoughts:

This movie is considered a classic and with good reason. I personally love it and have a blast watching it with my girlfriend every Halloween. I hope you all have a blast indulging in your own Halloween traditions this year and I hope you've enjoyed our month long Halloween celebration... BECAUSE IT'S NOT DONE YET! No, we're extending Halloween by one day. Why? Because... The Witches are Back!