Beetlejuice (1988) is one of those movies that really couldn’t have been made by just anybody. Released in 1988 and directed by Tim Burton!
Beetlejuice (1988) is one of those movies that really couldn’t have been made by just anybody. Released in 1988 and directed by Tim Burton, it takes ghosts, the afterlife, a haunted house and a ridiculous supernatural character and somehow turns all of it into one of the funniest movies of the decade.
The movie follows Adam and Barbara Maitland, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, who die in a car accident and discover that dying doesn’t necessarily mean you get to leave your house. When a new family moves in and completely changes the place, the Maitlands find themselves stuck dealing with the obnoxious Deetz family and their strange daughter Lydia.
Winona Ryder is fantastic as Lydia. She plays her as a sarcastic, gloomy teenager who is fascinated by death and can actually see Adam and Barbara when nobody else can. Ryder gives the character just the right amount of weirdness without turning her into a cartoon, and she became one of the most memorable parts of the entire movie.
Then there is Beetlejuice himself, played by Michael Keaton. This is easily one of Keaton’s most outrageous performances. Beetlejuice is loud, disgusting, unpredictable and completely inappropriate, but somehow you can’t take your eyes off him whenever he appears. Keaton clearly understood that the character wasn’t supposed to be a normal villain. He was basically controlled chaos in a striped suit.
Catherine O’Hara and Jeffrey Jones are also great as Lydia’s parents, Delia and Charles Deetz. Delia in particular is hilarious because she is completely obsessed with art and remodeling the house, even though she has absolutely no idea what she is doing. O’Hara’s performance gives the movie another layer of comedy because she plays Delia’s ridiculous personality completely straight.
The basic story is already funny enough. Adam and Barbara just want to get the Deetz family out of their house, so they eventually seek help from Beetlejuice, who promises that he can scare the new owners away. The obvious problem is that Beetlejuice is not exactly someone you want to invite into your life, and things quickly become much more complicated than the Maitlands expected.
What really makes Beetlejuice work, though, is Tim Burton’s visual style. The movie looks unlike almost anything else from the 1980s. The strange sets, stop motion effects, bizarre creatures and exaggerated production design create a world that feels like a twisted cartoon brought to life.
The special effects are another huge reason the movie remains so entertaining. Beetlejuice doesn’t depend on modern computer effects to make everything look perfect. Instead, it embraces practical effects, makeup, puppetry and stop motion. Some of the effects look intentionally strange and ridiculous, which is exactly what makes them work so well.
The comedy is also completely different from what you get in most movies. Beetlejuice isn’t trying to deliver realistic jokes or conventional sitcom humor. A lot of the comedy comes from the bizarre situations, the strange characters and the fact that everyone seems to react to completely insane things as if they’re just another problem to deal with.
One of the funniest examples is the famous dinner scene, where the Deetz family suddenly starts dancing to “Day-O” by Harry Belafonte. It’s one of those scenes that sounds completely stupid when you describe it, but somehow becomes hilarious when you actually watch it. That’s basically Beetlejuice in a nutshell.
The movie also has an incredible sense of personality. You can watch a few minutes of Beetlejuice and immediately know you’re watching a Tim Burton movie. The gothic atmosphere, weird characters, dark humor and strange visuals all work together instead of feeling like separate pieces.
What I think makes Beetlejuice a classic comedy is that it isn’t afraid to be weird. A lot of comedies try to make sure everything makes sense, but Beetlejuice seems perfectly happy throwing logic out the window. It understands that sometimes the funniest thing you can do is take a completely ridiculous idea and commit to it 100 percent.
It’s also a movie that has aged surprisingly well. The effects obviously look different compared with modern movies, but that’s actually part of the charm. Beetlejuice doesn’t feel outdated because it was never trying to look completely realistic in the first place. It created its own bizarre little universe and invited the audience to enjoy it.
Most importantly, Beetlejuice is just fun. It has a great cast, an unforgettable Michael Keaton performance, Tim Burton’s unique direction, a fantastic soundtrack and a story that constantly comes up with something unexpected. There aren’t many movies where ghosts, sandworms, bureaucrats from the afterlife and a talking bio-exorcist can all somehow fit together.
That’s why Beetlejuice has remained a classic comedy for almost 40 years. It’s funny, strange, creative and completely original, and you can tell that everyone involved understood exactly what kind of movie they were making. Beetlejuice doesn’t try to be normal, and that’s exactly why it works so damn well.