'' is a
Film directed by
Tim Burton , first released in the
USA on
March 30 ,
1988 , and produced by
The Geffen Film Company for
Warner Bros. Pictures . It features two recently deceased ghosts, Adam Maitland (
Alec Baldwin ) and his wife, Barbara, (
Geena Davis ), who seek the help of an obnoxious bio-exorcist, Beetlejuice (
Michael Keaton ), to remove the Deetz family — metropolitan
Yuppie s who recently moved from the city and now occupy their old house. The Deetz family consists of Charles (
Jeffrey Jones ); his second wife, Delia (
Catherine O'Hara ); and moody
Goth teenage daughter Lydia (
Winona Ryder ).
The name of the film is Beetlejuice. Repeating this name three times is all that is required to summon him and also makes him leave. Adam and Barbara are not his only victims, for scams are his specialty. He used to be an assistant to Juno (
Sylvia Sidney ), the Maitlands' case worker, before getting into trouble. Beetlejuice is rude and vulgar, eats insects, and loves to terrify people.
In this typically dark and humorous Tim Burton film, most of Keaton's lines were apparently improvised on set. Notable guest appearances include those of
Robert Goulet and
Dick Cavett (Delia's art agent). Songs from
Harry Belafonte are featured quite heavily in the movie, especially in a scene in which Delia starts belting out "Day-O" (The
Banana Boat Song ) in Belafonte's voice (thanks to some spectral trickery) at a dinner that she and Charles are hosting. The movie paints a picture of the afterlife as stuffy and bureaucratic rather than
Dante an, with waiting rooms, oceans of red tape, and required reading (''The
Handbook For The Recently Deceased ''). People who commit suicide, for example, are bored civil servants (the receptionist Adam and Barbara meet who slit her wrists, Juno slit her throat, the worker who called Adam and Barbara jumped in front of a vehicle, and another worker hung himself) rather than trees, as in the ''
Inferno ''. Adam and Barbara are trapped in their house. The world outside is a parched nightmare of sand
Dune s and a sandworm (Beetlejuice calls this place
Saturn ). Lydia is the only living character who sees the couple, and is tapped to help them deal both with her obnoxious parents and with the crass and impetuous Beetlejuice.
When characters die in the world of Beetlejuice, they apparently always return as ghosts. When first appearing as a ghost, characters do not seem to be able to understand what has happened to them. As time goes on, and characters become more and more aware of their ghost nature, they become more and more powerful. (Adam and Barbara make themselves look scary, but are apparently unseen by the new family. Adam and Barbara possess the new family during dinner and cause them to dance. Adam and Barbara allow Lydia to levitate at the end.)
Beetlejuice has been dead for a very long time, and has almost limitless powers. He is seemingly banished to the model town in the attic of the house, where his powers are greatly reduced. When released, he is able to control inanimate objects to attack people, imitate other people, summon objects and people at will, and banish people to 'Saturn'.
Beetlejuice seems to be inspired by
Jean-Paul Sartre 's existentialist novel ''Les jeux sont faits'' (
1952 ), which prominently features death as meaningless bureaucracy. Another, although not as extreme, example is the
2004 TV series ''
Dead Like Me '', in which the characters need to work as
Grim Reaper s before they can leave
Limbo . Also, in the
LucasArts adventure game ''
Grim Fandango '', people who commit crimes in life are forced to work off their time at the nightmarishly bureaucratic "Department of Death". An interesting constrast can be made with Burton's later work ''
Corpse Bride '', where the afterlife is vibrant and exciting, and the land of the living is grey and boring. All these are examples of
Bangsian Fantasy .
Beetlejuice was not granted an extravagant budget, particularly after ''
Little Shop Of Horrors '' ended up costing more than expected. As a result of this—and of the director's improvisatory style—some of the effects work may seem cheap and old-fashioned, especially by today's standards. Sometimes, however, the need to produce effects quickly and cheaply added to their quality. Scenes like the sand worm scene were shot in stop animation. And the shot of Barbara lifting up a toy horse in front of a mirror (demonstrating that while it cast a reflection, she did not) was achieved entirely in-camera, using an empty mirror frame, a partial set built beyond and two toy horses bolted together. The resulting shot is an illusion with no
Matte work and consequent loss of image definition.
See Also: Beetlejuice (TV series)
An
Animated Television Series loosely based on the film, also called ''
Beetlejuice '', ran on
ABC from September
1989 to December
1991 , featuring the voices of
Stephen Ouimette ,
Alyson Court , and
Tara Strong . Lydia and Beetlejuice are friends, and she frequently visits him at home in the Netherworld (called the Neitherworld in the cartoon). Many of the jokes revolve around
Toilet Humor and visual puns. ''Beetlejuice'' had a cast of wacky neighbors including 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.
A sequel to the movie has been in consideration for over fifteen years, without any results. Michael Keaton has expressed a continuing and large interest in reprising his role.
According to
An Evening With Kevin Smith , while being asked by
Warner Bros for rewriting a script,
Kevin Smith was offered the job of rewriting a non-optioned script titled '. Smith responded by saying "Didn't we say enough with the first ''''Beetlejuice''''? Must we go tropical?".
