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Beetlejuice
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tim Burton
Produced by	Larry Wilson David Geffen
Written by	Tim Burton Michael McDowell Larry Wilson Warren Skaaren
Starring	Michael Keaton Alec Baldwin Geena Davis Winona Ryder Catherine O'Hara Jeffrey Jones Glenn Shadix
Music by	Danny Elfman
Cinematography	Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing by	Jane Kurson
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Geffen Pictures
Release date(s)	March 30, 1988
Running time	92 min.
Country
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Gross revenue	$73,326,666
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Beetlejuice (alternative spelling: Beetle Juice) is a 1988 comedy directed by Tim Burton, first released in the USA on March 30, 1988, and produced by Geffen Pictures for Warner Bros.. The plot revolves around two recently deceased ghosts, Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) and his wife, Barbara, (Geena Davis), who seek the help of an obnoxious bio-exorcist, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), to remove the new owners of their house -- a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City named Deetz.

This film would be the first of three with actor Keaton and director Burton working together. They would later team up for two more movies: Batman and Batman Returns. The score was composed by Danny Elfman.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reaction 4.1 Animated series 4.2 Sequel 5 References 6 External links

Adam Maitland and his wife Barbara, a young couple living in the small town of Winter River, Connecticut, are about to begin a much needed vacation, but first, Adam needs to make a quick trip to the hardware store. On the way back, they swerve to avoid a dog and their car crashes through the side of the Winter River Bridge and falls into the river. When they arrive back home, strange things start happening and they don't remember how they got home. When Adam tries to backtrack their steps from the bridge, he's transported to a desert which is infested with monstrous sandworms. He makes it back to the house and they find a book entitled The Handbook for the Recently Deceased. They realize they did not live through the accident.

Away in the afterlife, Betelgeuse is reading the newspaper and sees the Maitlands' obituary. He remarks on how gullible they look. Not long after, Adam and Barbara get a rude awakening: Barbara's sister has sold their house to the Deetz family from New York, which she had been trying to do before the Maitlands died. Charles Deetz is a contractor for a major real estate company. His wife, Delia, is a sculptor known for her creepy art style. She hates the look of the house, and wants to make major changes. Charles's daughter, Lydia, is a rebellious goth teenager with an interest in photography and a bleak outlook on life. In addition, Delia's friend Otho has come along to help with the redecorating decisions.

Adam and Barbara want to get the Deetzes out of the house and decide to act like ghosts in order to do so. This proves to be difficult since they cannot be seen, although Lydia appears to notice them. Adam locks the Deetzes out of the attic, which the Maitlands consider to be their sanctuary. After several frustrating attempts to scare the Deetzes away, and after getting several messages from Betelgeuse, the Maitlands find their way to the afterlife, which is presented as a stuffy bureaucratic office, where they take a number and wait in the Waiting Room of Lost Souls along with ghosts that seem to have died in comically dramatic ways. After waiting, they talk with Juno, their caseworker, who informs them they will have to stay in their home for the first 125 years, gives them advice on how to do a proper haunting and recommends strongly that they finish reading the handbook thoroughly. She also warns them to stay away from Betelgeuse, who she says was once her assistant, but he just couldn't stay out of trouble: the only way to summon him is by calling his name three times. Taking Juno's advice, they try something simple and put on old sheets and moan like ghosts. This is unsuccessful at frightening the adults, but causes them to meet Lydia. When asked how she can see them, Lydia says she read their handbook, which states that normal people usually ignore things that are strange and unusual. "I myself am strange and unusual," she says. She quickly becomes a friend of the Maitlands and agrees to convince her parents to move out; her father and stepmother, however, don't believe her story about ghosts.

Back in the attic, Adam and Barbara summon Betelgeuse, who is living in Adam's scale model of the town. They call out his name three times, promptly shrinking down to scale with the model. When they meet Betelgeuse, he turns out to be even worse than Juno described, and they refuse to do business with him. They transport back to the attic by crying "Home" three times, leaving Betelgeuse wandering the model. Eventually Adam gets an idea: they will disrupt a dinner party Delia is having, by causing all guests (excepting Lydia) to become possessed and perform "The Banana Boat Song." The plan backfires when the guests enjoy the experience and want to meet the ghosts. When Lydia returns downstairs without the Maitlands, she explains that they want to be left alone. Disappointed, Delia's guests leave. An irritated Delia leads the family upstairs to confront the ghosts, but the room appears deserted. Otho steals the handbook before leaving, having been a researcher of the paranormal in the past. Betelgeuse laughs at the Maitlands' pathetic attempts to scare people and goes to work himself.

Downstairs, Charles is making plans to bring his partner, Maxie Dean, to see the property. Suddenly, Betelgeuse appears in the form of a snake. He attacks the Deetzes, but stops when he gets to Lydia. There's something he likes about her. Barbara stops him by calling out his name. Lydia is upset, thinking the snake was the Maitlands' attempt to scare them away. Upstairs, the Maitlands confront Betelgeuse until he is distracted by the appearance of a brothel in the model town. Adam and Barbara are suddenly transported to Juno's office, where she explains she set up the brothel to distract Betelgeuse. She is furious at the Maitlands; they've risked the exposure of the afterlife by allowing themselves to be photographed by Lydia and letting Otho take their handbook, and they have released Betelgeuse. She orders them to return and chase the Deetzes away for good. On their way back, they begin to question their assignment. They like Lydia too much to see her go.

Back at the house, the Deetzes are preparing for the arrival of Maxie Dean and his wife Sarah. Otho has planned a spell to summon the Maitlands' spirits, as Sarah loves ghosts. Meanwhile, Lydia is in her room, drafting a suicide note for her parents. She goes up to the attic and finds Betelgeuse. He agrees to take her to the other side (killing her), if she lets him out of the model by saying his name. He plays charades with her to help her guess his name, since even he can't say it out loud. After guessing his name, she recognizes him as the snake. Betelgeuse denies this and commands her to say his name again. Just then, the Maitlands arrive and stop her. Betelgeuse runs away. They convince her not to kill herself and tell her they've decided to let her family stay. Downstairs, Lydia finds that the Deans have arrived and Otho begins the spell he thought up using the handbook.

The spell summons the Maitlands into the room and causes them to start to wither and decay: apparently it is an exorcism spell. They were warned that for ghosts who are exorcised, it's like a second death. Desperate, Lydia finds Betelgeuse and begs him to help the Maitlands. He agrees, but only if Lydia agrees to marry him -- this is apparently the only way he can get out of the boring afterlife for good. Reluctantly, Lydia agrees, and calls out his name. Betelgeuse appears and removes (in a violent and comic manner) the Deans from the house. As promised, Betelgeuse frees the Maitlands from Otho's spell, although he is anything but gentle about it. As Otho tries to run from the house, Betelgeuse torments him by changing his traditional black outfit into a tacky leisure suit. Having fulfilled his end of the bargain, it's now time for Lydia to fulfill hers. Betelgeuse attempts to marry Lydia to escape from the afterlife. Barbara then ultimately "destroys" Betelgeuse by bringing a Sandworm through the house, which eats him. The Maitlands and Deetzes finally meet and reconcile their differences.

Several months later, things seem to be better. The Maitlands and Deetzes are at peace and Lydia has a better outlook on life. Betelgeuse, obviously having survived the ordeal, is back where he started in the Waiting Room of the afterlife, and is still getting into trouble. The film ends with Lydia dancing in the air to Jump in the Line (Shake Senora) by Harry Belafonte after she gets an A on her math test.

• Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse
• Alec Baldwin as Adam Maitland
• Geena Davis as Barbara Maitland
• Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz
• Catherine O'Hara as Delia Deetz
• Jeffrey Jones as Charles Deetz
• Glenn Shadix as Otho
• Sylvia Sidney as Juno
• Robert Goulet as Maxie Dean
• Maree Cheatham as Sarah Dean
• Dick Cavett as Bernard
• Tony Cox as Preacher
• Jack Angel as Preacher (voice)

The financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure meant that Tim Burton was now considered a "bankable" director. He had begun working on a script for Warner Brothers for a proposed Batman movie with screenwriter Sam Hamm, but while the studio was willing to pay for the script's development, they were less willing to green-light the project. Meanwhile, Burton had begun reading through various comedic scripts that had been sent his way, and was swiftly becoming disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality, one of which was Hot to Trot.^[1]

It wasn't until David Geffen, whose company had a distribution deal with Warner Brothers, handed him a script called Beetlejuice, written by Michael McDowell. McDowell previously wrote the script for "The Jar" on The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, directed by Burton. Burton was most fascinated by the ghoulish, bizarre, and highly imaginative styles with the potential for outrageous set designs and innovative special effects. This in all, was described by McDowell as, "a feel-good movie about death."^[1]

Burton claimed at one time while they were rewriting the scrips that he wanted to cast Sammy Davis Jr as Betelgeuse. McDowell and producer Larry Wilson kept working on the script, but they were eventually getting tired working with Burton. Warren Skaaren was then brought in because Burton claims McDowell and Wilson "were burnt out."^[1]

It was originally Geffen's idea to cast Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse, and Burton was convinced on the idea after meeting him, calling him a "manic livewire." Burton claims that Geena Davis was very optimistic to sign on. Burton was inspired to cast Winona Ryder after viewing her performance in Lucas.^[1]

Beetlejuice's budget was $13 million with just one million of that given over to special effects work. It was always Burton's intention that the special effects "be cheap, creaky illusions rather than state -of-the-art effects," something similar seen in various B Movies Burton saw as a child. Danny Elfman once again collaborated with Burton to score the music.^[1]

The studio disliked the title Beetlejuice and wanted to call the film House Ghosts. Burton claims it was very close to being changed. The studio quoted, "Beetlejuice doesn't test, but House Ghosts is going through the roof." As a joke, Burton suggested the name Scared Sheetless and was horrified when the studio actually considered using it.^[1]

Beetlejuice opened around April Fool's Day in 1988, and was a surprise success, taking $32 million in its first two weeks,. Eventually it would gross more than $73 million, monstrously beating out its $11 million budget. Ve Neill, Steve La Porte, and Robert Short won an Oscar for Best Makeup. Pauline Kael called the film a "comedy classic."^[1]

Time Out London was massively impressed by the film, declaring that "the off-the wall humor and some sensational sight gags make the movie, maddeningly disjointed though it sometimes is, a truly astonishing piece of work."^[2] Roger Ebert took a different view, wishing the film had been more character-driven and had "cut back on the slapstick."^[3]

The film holds a 7.2/10 on IMDB and a certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, scoring 79%/100%. Warner Brothers finally greenlighted the long-in-development Batman film for Tim Burton upon viewing the box office success from the first week. Burton claims that Alec Baldwin hated the film. Burton quoted, "Alec kind of bad-mouthed the movie and me. While I think he did a good job, I don't think he saw it for what it was. I don't know what he saw."^[1]

Main article: Beetlejuice (TV series)

Due to the success of the film, an animated television series called Beetlejuice, ran on ABC from September 9, 1989 to December 6, 1991, featuring the voices of Stephen Ouimette, Alyson Court, and Tara Strong. Lydia and Betelgeuse are friends, and she frequently visits him at home in the Netherworld (called the Neitherworld in the cartoon). Many of the jokes revolve around dark humor and visual puns. Beetlejuice had a cast of wacky neighbors: Jacques, a French skeleton fitness buff; Ginger, a tap-dancing spider; The Monster across the Street, a boisterous Texas redneck; and a nasty clown named Scuzzo, who is his arch-nemesis. Notably missing are the characters of Adam and Barbara Maitland.

Kevin Smith talks of being offered to rewrite a script for a tentative sequel, titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, which he passed over in order to work on Superman Lives. Smith responded with, "Didn't we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?"^[4] Before Smith, Mars Attacks! screenwriter Jonathan Gems turned in a draft as well.^{[citation needed]}

• Beetlejuice at the Internet Movie Database
• Beetlejuice at All Movie Guide
• Beetlejuice at Rotten Tomatoes

v • d • e Tim Burton

Director: The Island of Doctor Agor • Stalk of the Celery • Vincent • Frankenweenie • Pee-wee's Big Adventure • Beetlejuice • Batman • Edward Scissorhands • Batman Returns • Ed Wood • Mars Attacks! • Sleepy Hollow • Planet of the Apes • Big Fish • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory • Corpse Bride • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street • Alice in Wonderland Producer: The Nightmare Before Christmas • Cabin Boy • Batman Forever • James and the Giant Peach • 9