Psycho's Movie Reviews #179: Beetlejuice (1988)

Beetlejuice is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The plot revolves around a recently deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) who become ghosts haunting their former home that contact Betelgeuse (pronounced and occasionally spelled Beetlejuice in the film and portrayed by Michael Keaton), an obnoxious and devious "bio-exorcist" from the Netherworld, to scare away the house's new inhabitants (Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones, and Winona Ryder).

Beetlejuice was a critical and commercial success, grossing US$74.2 million from a budget of US$15 million. It won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and three Saturn Awards: Best Horror Film, Best Makeup, and Best Supporting Actress for Sylvia Sidney. The film's success spawned an animated television series, video games, and a 2018 stage musical.

Plot

In Winter River, Connecticut, Barbara and Adam Maitland decide to spend their vacation decorating their idyllic country home. As the two are driving home from a trip to town, Barbara swerves to avoid a dog and the car plunges into a river. After they return home, she and Adam notice that they now lack reflections and they discover a book called the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. They then begin to suspect that they did not survive the car accident; Adam attempts to leave the house but ends up in a strange and otherworldly desert-like landscape populated by enormous sandworms.

The house is sold and the new owners, the Deetz family, arrive from New York City. Charles Deetz is a former real estate developer; his second wife Delia is a self-proclaimed sculptor; and his goth daughter Lydia, from his first marriage, is an aspiring photographer. Under the guidance of interior designer Otho, the Deetzes transform the house into tasteless and pastel-toned work of modern art. Consulting the Handbook, the Maitlands travel to an otherworldly waiting room populated by other distressed souls, where they discover that the afterlife is structured according to a complex bureaucracy involving vouchers and caseworkers. The Maitlands' own caseworker, Juno, informs them that they must remain in the house for the next one hundred and twenty five years, on pain of a dire fate. If they want the Deetzes out of the house, it is up to them to scare them away, but their attempts prove ineffective.

Although Adam and Barbara remain invisible to Charles and Delia, teenage Lydia can see the ghost couple and befriends them. Against Juno's advice, the Maitlands contact the miscreant Betelgeuse, Juno's former assistant and a now freelance "bio-exorcist", to scare away the Deetzes. At first, they are unaware that his name is pronounced "Beetlejuice", which is why they have such difficulty pronouncing it and thereby summoning him. However, Betelgeuse quickly offends the Maitlands with his crude and morbid demeanor: they reconsider hiring him, though too late to stop him from wreaking havoc on the Deetzes. The small town's charm and the supernatural events inspire Charles to pitch his boss Maxie Dean on transforming the town into a tourist hot spot, but Maxie wants proof of the ghosts. Using the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, Otho conducts what he thinks is a séance and summons Adam and Barbara, using their wedding clothes, but they begin to decay and die, as Otho had unwittingly performed what was actually an exorcism, instead. Horrified, Lydia summons Betelgeuse for help; but he agrees to help her only on the condition that she marry him, enabling him to freely cause chaos in the mortal world. Betelgeuse saves the Maitlands and disposes of Maxie, his wife, and Otho, then prepares a wedding before a ghastly minister. The Maitlands intervene before the ceremony is completed, with Barbara riding a sandworm through the house to devour Betelgeuse.

Finally, the Deetzes and Maitlands agree to live in harmony within the house. Betelgeuse, meanwhile, is stuck in the after-life waiting room; there he antagonizes a witch doctor, who shrinks his head. Being Betelgeuse, however, he remains upbeat and states that it is fine for him.

Production

Development

Following the financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) Tim Burton became a "bankable" director and began working on a script for Batman with Sam Hamm. While Warner Bros. was willing to pay for the script's development, they were less willing to green-light Batman. Burton had become disheartened by the lack of imagination and originality in the scripts that had been sent to him, particularly Hot to Trot. David Geffen handed Burton the script for Beetlejuice, written by Michael McDowell (who wrote the script for "The Jar", an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents directed by Burton).

Larry Wilson was brought on board to continue rewriting work with McDowell, though Burton replaced McDowell and Wilson with Skaaren due to creative differences. Burton's original choice for Betelgeuse was Sammy Davis Jr. The producers also considered Dudley Moore and Sam Kinison for the role; but Geffen suggested Keaton. Burton was unfamiliar with Keaton's work, but was quickly convinced. The role of Lydia Deetz was auditioned for by several actresses such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Brooke Shields, Lori Loughlin, Diane Lane, Justine Bateman, Molly Ringwald, Juliette Lewis and Jennifer Connelly. Alyssa Milano was the runner-up for the role of Lydia Deetz. Burton cast Ryder upon seeing her in Lucas. Anjelica Huston was originally cast as Delia Deetz but then later dropped out due to illness. O'Hara quickly signed on, while Burton claimed it took a lot of time to convince other cast members to sign, as "they didn't know what to think of the weird script."

Beetlejuice's budget was US$15 million, with just US$1 million given over to visual effects work. Considering the scale and scope of the effects, which included stop motion, replacement animation, prosthetic makeup, puppetry and blue screen, it was always Burton's intention to make the style similar to the B movies he grew up with as a child. "I wanted to make them look cheap and purposely fake-looking", Burton remarked. Burton had wanted to hire Anton Furst as production designer after being impressed with his work on The Company of Wolves (1984) and Full Metal Jacket (1987), though Furst was committed to High Spirits, a choice he later regretted. He hired Bo Welch, his future collaborator on Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Batman Returns (1992). The test screenings were met with positive feedback and prompted Burton to film an epilogue featuring Betelgeuse foolishly angering a witch doctor. Warner Bros. disliked the title Beetlejuice and wanted to call the film House Ghosts. As a joke, Burton suggested the name Scared Sheetless and was horrified when the studio actually considered using it. Exterior shots were filmed in East Corinth, Vermont.

Writing

McDowell's original script is far less comedic and much darker; the Maitlands' car crash is depicted graphically, with Barbara's arm being crushed and the couple screaming for help as they slowly drown in the river. A reference to this remained, as Barbara remarks that her arm feels frozen upon returning home as a ghost. Instead of possessing the Deetzes and forcing them to dance during dinner, the Maitlands cause a vine-patterned carpet to come to life and attack the Deetzes by tangling them to their chairs.

The character of Betelgeuse—envisioned by McDowell as a winged demon, who takes on the form of a short Middle Eastern man–is also intent on killing the Deetzes rather than scaring them, and wanted sex from Lydia instead of wanting to marry her. In this version of the script, Betelgeuse only needs to be exhumed from his grave to be summoned, after which he is free to wreak havoc; he cannot be summoned or controlled by saying his name three times, and wanders the world freely, appearing to torment different characters in different manifestations. McDowell's script also featured a second Deetz child, nine-year-old Cathy, the only person able to see the Maitlands and the subject of Betelgeuse's homicidal wrath in the film's climax, during which he mutilates her while in the form of a rabid squirrel before revealing his true form.

In another version of the script, the film was to have concluded with the Maitlands, Deetzes, and Otho conducting an exorcism ritual that destroys Betelgeuse, and the Maitlands transforming into miniature versions of themselves and moving into Adam's model of their home, which they refurbish to look like their house before the Deetzes moved in.

Co-author and producer Larry Wilson has talked about the negative reaction to McDowell's original script at Universal where he was employed at the time: "I won't name names here, but I worked at Universal Studios at the time. I was director of development for the director Walter Hill. I had a very good relationship with a very prominent executive at Universal. He liked me, and he liked what I was doing with Walter, and the material I was bringing in." I gave him Beetlejuice to read, and I gave it to him on a Friday, and on Monday his assistant called me and said well, he wants to meet with you. My initial reaction was wow! He'd read it. He must have loved it or he wouldn't have wanted to see me so soon. But I went into his office, and he literally said "what are you doing with your career?" "This piece of weirdness, this is what you're going to go out into the world with? You're developing into a very good executive. You've got great taste in material. Why are you going to squander all that for this piece of shit", was basically what he was saying. It goes to show, right? Shortly after that, we sold it to the Geffen Company.[17]

Skaaren's rewrite drastically shifted the film's tone, eliminating the graphic nature of the Maitlands' deaths while depicting the afterlife as a complex bureaucracy. Skaaren's rewrite also altered McDowell's depiction of the limbo that keeps Barbara and Adam trapped inside of their home; in McDowell's script, it takes the form of a massive void filled with giant clock gears that shred the fabric of time and space as they move. Skaaren had Barbara and Adam encounter different limbos every time they leave their home, including the "clock world", and the Sandworm's world, identified as Saturn's moon Titan. Skaaren also introduced the leitmotif of music accompanying Barbara and Adam's ghostly hijinks, although his script specified R&B tunes instead of Harry Belafonte, and was to have concluded with Lydia dancing to "When a Man Loves a Woman".

Skaaren's first draft retained some of the more sinister characteristics of McDowell's Betelgeuse, but toned down the character to make him a troublesome pervert rather than blatantly murderous. Betelgeuse's true form was that of the Middle Eastern man, and much of his dialogue was written in African-American Vernacular English. This version concluded with the Deetzes returning to New York and leaving Lydia in the care of the Maitlands, who, with Lydia's help, transform the exterior of their home into a stereotypical haunted house while returning the interior to its previous state. It also would have featured deleted scenes such as the real-estate agent, Jane, trying to convince the Deetzes to allow her to sell the house for them (having sold it to them in the first place—Charles and Delia decline), and a revelation on how Beetlejuice had died centuries earlier (that he had attempted to hang himself while drunk, only to mess it up and died slowly choking to death, rather than quickly by snapping his neck) and wound-up working for Juno before striking it out on his own as a "free-lance Bio-Exorcist".

Retrospectively, McDowell was impressed at how many people made the connection between the film's title and the star Betelgeuse. He added that the writers and producers had received a suggestion the sequel be named Sanduleak -69 202 after the former star of SN 1987A.

Filming

While the setting is the fictional village of Winter River, Connecticut, all outdoor scenes were filmed in East Corinth, a village in the town of Corinth, Vermont. Interiors were filmed at The Culver Studios in Culver City, California. Principal photography began on March 11, 1987.

Soundtrack

The Beetlejuice soundtrack, first released in 1988 on LP, CD, and cassette tape, features most of the score (written and arranged by Danny Elfman) from the film. Geffen reissued the original 1988 soundtrack on vinyl in 2015, which was later re-mastered and pressed to vinyl by Waxwork Records in 2019 for the 30th anniversary of Beetlejuice. The soundtrack features two original recordings performed by Harry Belafonte used in the film: "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)". Two other vintage Belafonte recordings that appeared in the film are absent from the soundtrack: "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" and "Sweetheart from Venezuela". The soundtrack entered the Billboard 200 albums chart the week ending June 25, 1988, at #145, peaking two weeks later at #118 and spending a total of six weeks on the chart. This was after the film had already fallen out of the top 10 and before the video release later in October. "Day-O" received a fair amount of airplay at the time in support of the soundtrack.

The complete score (with the Belafonte tracks included) was released in both the DVD and the Blu-ray as an isolated music track in the audio settings menu; this version of the audio track consists entirely of "clean" musical cues, uninterrupted by dialogue or sound effects.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Beetlejuice was met with a mostly positive response. Based on 59 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Beetlejuice received an 85% overall approval rating with a weighted average of 7.21/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Brilliantly bizarre and overflowing with ideas, Beetlejuice offers some of Michael Keaton's most deliciously manic work - and creepy, funny fun for the whole family." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 18 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B on a grade scale of A to F.

Pauline Kael referred to the film as a "comedy classic", while Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader gave a highly positive review. Rosenbaum felt Beetlejuice carried originality and creativity that did not exist in other films. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a farce for our time" and wished Keaton could have received more screen time. Desson Howe of The Washington Post felt Beetlejuice had "the perfect balance of bizarreness, comedy and horror".

Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, stating that the film "tries anything and everything for effect, and only occasionally manages something marginally funny" and "is about as funny as a shrunken head". Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, writing that he "would have been more interested if the screenplay had preserved their Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis sweet romanticism and cut back on the slapstick". For Keaton's character, Ebert called him "unrecognizable behind pounds of makeup" and stated that "his scenes don't seem to fit with the other action".

Beetlejuice opened theatrically in the United States on March 30, 1988, earning US$8,030,897 in its opening weekend. The film eventually grossed US$73,707,461 in North America. Beetlejuice was a financial success, recouping its US$15 million budget, and was the 10th-highest grossing film of 1988.

Budget $15 million

Box office $74.2 million

My Review

I watched this film a couple years back, for two reasons -- first, because you need to watch scary movies on Halloween (although I think this is really more of a comedy). But second, because Robert Goulet had passed on a few days before, and I felt it would only be right and proper to honour the man who had made such an impression in my life after seeing him sing.

As far as I know, this film marks the first Tim Burton and Michael Keaton collaboration, before they both went on to make the two best Batman films in history (at least until Chris Nolan came around). We also have Jeffrey Jones, another regular and the music by Danny Elfman from Oingo Boingo. Winona Ryder (from Burton's "Edward Scissorhands") is here, and this is by far her greatest role. Maybe her only truly great role, in fact, as this is the way I like to remember her... not so much as Spock's mother.

Tim Burton was perfect to direct this film, giving him a range of weird and grotesque things to work with, weird clay stuff and wild architecture. It's like the peak of his career because it's as strange as "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and as dark as any of his films... all of which were perfect until he picked "Planet of the Apes" and his career died a brutal death (with the post-Apes exception of "Big Fish" and perhaps "Big Eyes").

That is what you get here, though: comedy and the macabre, mixed together... a world where suicide victims get to spend the afterlife as civil servants... and your death wound stays visible forever. (Drowning seems to have been a good choice to avoid looking awful.) Michael Keaton at his dirtiest (think "Night Shift" and not "Mr. Mom"). Oh, and Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song"... you need that.

https://youtu.be/0HG7dNMjI9s?list=TLPQMDUwMTIwMjLCTCY7m3DW-Q

So, should you see it? The real question is why haven't you already? Any horror fan will appreciate this, as will any Tim Burton fan. The feel of this film is fun and fresh even two decades later. There is a special edition 20th anniversary DVD, which also offers a few episodes of the cartoon for some reason. It isn't great... maybe next time?

Beetle Juice may be strange and oddball at first, but like several films I have seen over the years, it could well grow on you. Essentially it is a landmark supernatural comedy as well as being a refreshingly flaky fantasy crammed with wit and invention, that I think is one of Tim Burton's better films along with Batman, Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands. It is also a marvellously imaginative view of the afterlife as a ghoulish extension of mundane earthbound problems. The visuals once again are absolutely wonderful, with dark cinematography, imaginative sets and zany special effects. The script are filled to the brim with one-liners that are funny and somewhat demonic, the score from Danny Elfman is fun and the direction is pretty much superb. And I loved how offbeat the performances were, with Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis suitably low key as the recently deceased couple who want to rid their new home of human pests. Speaking of those human pests, Catherine O' Hara proves herself fantastically pretentious as the artist whose creations come to life in one of the film's most memorable scenes, and Jeffrey Jones and Winona Ryder are also memorable but it is Michael Keaten as Bettelgeuse, the unstable freelance exorcist who steals the show who portrays the character as unique and completely and utterly insane. Overall, unique, imaginative and lots of fun. 10/10

{The theme is a bop - plus I love how the soundtrack consists of Harry Belefonte songs}

https://youtu.be/oZktSPrGSck?list=TLPQMDUwMTIwMjLCTCY7m3DW-Q