Beetlejuice

Summary

This clause contains references to suicide .

Tim Burton’sBeetlejuiceis a widely adore horror clowning classic from the ‘ 80s with a highly anticipated continuation on the way of life , but a few flaws show up on a rewatch of the original motion picture today . Beetlejuicewas the first Burton movie to really feel like a Burton movie . He made his feature - length directorial debut with the uncharacteristically family - friendlyPee - wee ’s Big Adventurebefore settling into his now - famous love of the macabre with his soph effort , Beetlejuice . Burton ’s uniquely gothic style of horror , bringing surreal concepts to life story with a dark , gloomy ocular pallette , was mostly establish by his direction ofBeetlejuice .

All these years later , Beetlejuiceremains one of Burton ’s most beloved films , and a bona fide classic of ‘ eighty horror . But , as with most classic motion picture from its earned run average , it has n’t get on dead . There are a lot of matter inBeetlejuicethat still hold up today – specially Michael Keaton ’s addictively zany performance in the deed role – but there are a few tough realness of rewatchingBeetlejuicetoday . From Keaton ’s bafflingly limited screen prison term in one of his most iconic roles to the eponymous bio - exorciser ’s inappropriate romantic obsession with a teen , Beetlejuicehas many fateful flaw that stomach out today .

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A tease change for Michael Keaton ’s character in Beetlejuice 2 will retroactively cause viewers to recognize a surprising detail about the 1988 film .

10Beetlejuice Takes A While To Set Up Its Quirky Haunted House Premise

Beetlejuice is pretty slow-paced by today’s standards

it ’s rugged to revisit moving picture from yesteryear , because a lot of them seem painfully slow - paced

Since the aid duo of the average audience member keeps pay back shorter , pic keep getting faster - paced , with spirited storytelling and more frequent cuts . This mean that it ’s tough to revisit movies from past times , because a spate of them seem painfully slow - paced by today ’s standards . Beetlejuicedoesn’t move at a painfully slow stride , but it does take a while to congeal up its quirky haunted house assumption .

Beetlejuicehas a slap-up horror funniness premise , flipping the haunted mansion movie on its forefront as it turn the shade into the protagonists , but its first bit really drags . The Maitlands pass a draw of metre in a paranormal waiting way before deciding to scare off their home ’s unexampled inhabitants . When it gets going , it really gets get going , but it takes clip to position up the high - construct assumption .

Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz with a wilting Adam and Barbara Maitland in Beetlejuice

Custom Image by Yailin Chacon

9Michael Keaton Only Has 17 Minutes Of Screen Time In Beetlejuice

Michael Keaton’s show-stealing performance is absurdly limited

Keaton ’s carrying into action as Betelgeuse is one of the funniest turns in picture show history

The one part ofBeetlejuicethat has mature attractively and is still just as impressive today as it was when the movie was first released isMichael Keaton ’s buggy performance in the title role . Keaton ’s operation as Betelgeuse is one of the funniest plough in movie history and he contribute an get-up-and-go to the screen that invigorates the occasionally slow - step storytelling . But one of the harshest realities of rewatching the moving-picture show is that Keaton does n’t have a passel of screen time .

jointly , Keaton ’s Betelgeuse appears on - screen for about 17 minutes . The live on impression he leaves is similar to Anthony Hopkins ’ Oscar - acquire turn inThe Silence of the Lambs . But it ’s pretty unsatisfying to rewatch a movie based on an kinship for the rubric case , only for that title type to appear in a fraction of the picture show ’s runtime .

Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice in Beetlejuice 2 with a green background

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice stars Michael Keaton as the titular “bio-exorcist”, an obnoxious spirit who specializes in driving living occupants out of homes. When Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) die suddenly, they pass into the spirit realm, and must stay in their home. However, in the living world, the Deetz family purchases the house and moves in, prompting the Maitlands to enlist the help of Beetlejuice to drive them away.

8Beetlejuice’s Script Is Overstuffed With Ideas

The writers' everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach doesn’t always work

For the most part , Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren’sBeetlejuicescript isa really well - write horror comedy with a lot of spooky exercise set - pieces and a lot of jape . But the script is so jam - tamp down with ideas that their composition often takes an everything - and - the - kitchen - sink approach path . They bemuse every horror assumption imaginable into this movie – willpower , dispossession , poltergeists , the hereafter , unbreakable curses , etc . – to see what marijuana cigarette .

There are a net ton of really intriguing idea in theBeetlejuicescript , but it burns through them so quickly – and introduce so many raw mind along the way – thatthe most interesting assumption get drown out and do n’t get full explore . This was a point of contention in most of the film ’s negative reviews when it was ab initio released . Unfortunately , the problem has n’t ameliorate with meter and it ’s still an payoff on rewatches .

7Betelgeuse’s Obsession With A Teenager Is Really Uncomfortable To Watch

No one wants to watch a 600-year-old poltergeist coerce a teenager into marrying him

While Lydia Deetz ’s long time is never explicitly state inBeetlejuice , the type is imply to be about 16 days old . This constitute the main conflict of the film – Betelgeuse ’s prurient effort to coerce her into hook up with him – really uncomfortable to watch . In a signified , Betelgeuse is ageless , because he ’s a poltergeist who exists in the Netherworld , but he ’s play by a grown man and he ’s adumbrate to be around 600 years old .

The movie is n’t on Betelgeuse ’s side , of course;it does n’t expect the audience to take his side and rout for him to tie Lydia . It recognize the creepiness of Betelgeuse ’s demands , but it still depicts them in the circumstance of a blithe supernatural drollery . unfitting relationship , like Claire falling for John Bender after he assail her inThe Breakfast Club , are a usual harsh realness when rewatching movies from the ‘ 80s .

6The Stop-Motion Sandworm Effects Haven’t Aged Very Well

The FX team can be given the benefit of the doubt, but the animation doesn’t look great

Burton and his FX team used time - tested practical methods to bring the ghosts and ghouls of the Netherworld to life .

A tidy sum ofBeetlejuice ’s special effects still hold up today , because Burton and his FX squad used meter - test virtual methods to lend the specter and ghouls of the Netherworld to life . But there ’s one especial aspect of the effects that does n’t reckon so expectant on a rewatch today . Whenever the undead Maitlands ill-treat outside their house , they ’re stranded in a surrealistic desert landscape and attacked bysandworms , make with break off - motion vivification .

As an spiritedness method acting , terminate - motion is tried and unfeigned – and it’sone of the first filmmaking technique that Burton used in his career – but the sandworms inBeetlejuicearen’t convincing at all . They look especially unlikely against springy - action footage of Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis . Even the sandworms in the David Lynch interlingual rendition ofDunelooked advantageously than the sandworms inBeetlejuice .

Kubo in Kubo and The Two Strings, Michael in Anomalisa, and Mr. Fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox

Stop - motion is an underrated and gorgeous medium of vitality , and though many of its moving picture strike in the horror genre , plenty overstep it as well .

5The Beetlejuice Script Is Elevated By Michael Keaton’s Improvisation

The funniest lines in Beetlejuice come from Keaton’s ad-libs

Keaton ’s extemporization elevated a adequate funniness playscript to comedic gold

Keaton splendidly did a bunch of ad - libbing in the function of Betelgeuse , and that ’s the main reason why the part ended up being so memorable . If Keaton had baffle to the script and only spoken the lines that were write for him , the character would n’t have been such an instant icon . Keaton ’s improvisations elevated a comme il faut comedy script to comedic gold .

The scenes involvingBeetlejuice ’s other charactersare nowhere most as funny , and serve to highlight just how much Keaton elevate the stuff . The Maitlands ’ comedic dialogue fall flat when they do n’t have Betelgeuse to bounce off , and Otho ’s scenes as a flamboyant , demanding internal decorator simply play on tired stereotypes . If it was n’t for Keaton ’s improvisations bringing a bunch of memorable bank line to the board , Beetlejuice ’s playscript would n’t be as revered as it is .

Alec Baldwin as Adam Maitland and Geena Davis as Barbara in Beetlejuice

4It’s Tough To Rewatch Any Movie Featuring Jeffrey Jones

Jones' criminal charges have tarnished a lot of classic ’80s movies

Jones ’ real - life vicious accusation have tarnished his cinematic bequest

Jeffrey Jones , who appears intheBeetlejuicecastas Lydia ’s father , actual land developer Charles Deetz , is notoriously a register sex offender in existent life . In 2003 , Jones was buck with romance a minor to pose for nude photographs , and he ’s since been arrested for break to update his sexual urge wrongdoer status . This has made it uncomfortable to revisit any of Jones ’ moving picture – and he star in some of the good picture show of the ‘ fourscore .

In addition to his supporting turn inBeetlejuice , Jones dally Principal Rooney inFerris Bueller ’s Day Off , Inspector Lestrade inWithout a Clue , Emperor Joseph II inAmadeus , and Dr. Skip Tyler inThe Hunt for Red October . Jones ’ real - living criminal billing have tarnished his cinematic legacy , and his films are an inauspicious fatal accident of that . It ’s hard to rewatch Jones in any of these motion-picture show .

10 Actors We Want To See Work With Tim Burton In His Next Movie After Beetlejuice 2

3Beetlejuice Takes Suicide Very Lightly

Beetlejuice has plenty of jokes about the sensitive subject of suicide

As order has become more sensitive to progeny of mental health , self-annihilation has stopped being used as an easy target for drollery . ButBeetlejuicewas made at a time when witticism about suicide was considered fairish game , and it lean really hard into that incompatible jocularity sphere . InBeetlejuice ’s word-painting of the afterlife , it ’s involve that people who take their own life are condemn to a workaday career as a pencil - crusade civil handmaid for all timelessness . The late Miss Argentina makes light of her “ small accident ” as she point the scars on her carpus .

The motion-picture show does attempt to take the publication of self-destruction seriously when Lydia starts to march suicidal ideation . But this is brushed over in a unmarried conversation that seems to whole eliminate those thoughts . Beetlejuice ’s lackadaisical mental attitude towards suicide is unmanageable to watch today .

Michael Keaton & Winona Ryder are confirmed to return in Tim Burton ’s Beetlejuice 2 , but will Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis reprise their part ?

Headshot Of Catherine O’Hara

2The Horror Stuff Is Only Really Scary For Kids

Anyone rewatching Beetlejuice as an adult will be underwhelmed by the scares

… a great horror moving picture for beginner .

The horror element ofBeetlejuiceare only scary to young audience , which can make for a disappointing rewatch . Anyone who think back being terrorise byBeetlejuiceas a child will be very underwhelmed by the scares when they rewatch the photographic film as an grownup . It ’s a frightening horror movie for kids , but not so much for grown - ups . Keaton ’s portrayal of Betelgeuse is sure enough creepy-crawly , but he plays the part with such an infectious sense of humor that he ’s never truly terrifying .

The kid - favorable jump scares and flighty image inBeetlejuicemake it a with child repulsion film for beginners . Any film buff who want to douse their toes in the repugnance genre will have a lot of fun with the extrasensory action ofBeetlejuice . But any genuine horror fan hoping to be unsettled byBeetlejuicewill be let down .

Headshot Of Michael Keaton In The Los Angeles Special Screening Of ‘Knox Goes Away’

1None Of The Beetlejuice Cast’s Other Performances Are In Step With Michael Keaton’s

It’s as if Keaton is in a totally different movie than his co-stars

Keaton is the undeniable M.V.P. ofBeetlejuiceand he gives one of the superlative performance of his calling , but no one else in the pic ’s cast goes quite as fully grown as him . Keaton is the movie ’s irregular wildcard , take on each of his scenes on unexpected twistsand move around that keep them compelling from instant to bit . The other actors struggle to keep up with Keaton whenever they deal the screen with him .

It ’s almost as if Keaton has stumbled in from a different movie . His carbon monoxide - stars ’ performances are out of footmark with his own . Since the original movie is so iconic , hopefully the upcomingBeetlejuicesequel – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , set to be unloose on September 6 , 2024 – will fix this and Keaton ’s co - stars will match his zaniness ( and he ’ll be given more than a measly 17 minutes of screen time in the final gash ) .

Tim Burton ’s unambiguously flighty style has been a Hollywood favourite for decades and may attract new actors to asterisk in his next pic after Beetlejuice 2 .

Beetlejuice

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Cast

Tim Burton ’s Beetlejuice stars Michael Keaton as the nominal " bio - exorciser " , an obnoxious spirit who specializes in push back living occupants out of homes . When Barbara ( Geena Davis ) and Adam Maitland ( Alec Baldwin ) buy the farm suddenly , they pass into the spirit realm , and must stay in their home . However , in the living human beings , the Deetz family purchases the house and moves in , prompt the Maitlands to draft the help of Beetlejuice to motor them away .