Starring: Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder
Director: Tim Burton
Released: March 30, 1988
Beetlegeuse, Beetlegeuse, Beetlegeuse! Say his name three times to summon him, or just pop the DVD into the machine to watch Keaton's hillarious stripe-suited ghoul in this brilliant comedy-horror which is so funny you might die.
Barbara (Davis) and Adam (Baldwin) Maitland thought that a vacation spent redecorating their quaint country home in Connecticut would be perfect. Little do they know that their home is about to get a very unwelcome makeover, not to mention their lives. After crashing through a covered bridge and plummeting into the river below, the couple find themselves back in their home with no memory of how they came to be there. When they realise that they cast no reflections, cannot leave the house without entering a terrifying sand dimension populated by giant hungry sandworms, and have been left a Handbook for the Recently Deceased, the Maitlands realise that they did not survive the crash, and are dead.
As if death wasn't bad enough, the Maitlands have another problem on their hands - unwanted housemates. A new family, the Deetzes, is moving in, and the mother, terrible sculpter Delia, and her interior designer Otho want to turn the Maitland's precious home into a gaudy piece of pretentious pseudo art. Hope comes in the form of Lydia (a very young Winona Ryder), Delia's gothic teenage step-daughter who is willing to believe in the ghosts and so is the only one who can see and speak to them.
The Maitland's efforts to scare the Deetzes out of their house prove fruitless, and when their afterlife care worker Juno informs them that they have to stay in the house for 125 years, they are desperate. Enter Beetlegeuse (Keaton) - an obnoxious, disgusting and devious ghoul who claims to be a freelance 'bio-exorcist', able to get rid of the living. After making himself at home in the detailed model of the town Adam has built in the attic, Beetlegeuse gets the Maitlands to summon him by chanting his name three times, despite Juno's warning that he is bad news. Meeting the mischevious character makes the couple understand Juno's warning and they choose not to accept his help... But they forget to unsummon him, allowing Beetlegeuce to run amock and very nearly kill the Deetzes during another attempt from the Maitlands to scare them away. With the fiend safely back in the model and the couple now deadly certain that he is indeed bad news, what could possibly go wrong? But the crafty Beetlegeuse has more tricks up his sleeve and, worse still, he has a crush on Lydia. With the Deetzes now trying to make money by exploiting the ghosts of the house, and Beetlegeuse planning a wedding to die for, the Maitlands have a lot more problems on thier hands than death.
Beetlejuice (the title spelt as the phonetic of the character's name) is a wonderfully bizarre and creative film. The special effects are impressive for a film of its time, and there is a perfect balance of comedy, romance (even in death, the Maitlands are still in love), horror (though tame for the Saw generation), and fantasy. The insight into death is original and intriguing, with a seemingly eternal waiting room for corpses waiting to see their case workers, coupons, and even a handbook. Keaton's portrayal of the devious Beetlegeuse is hillarious and, though the film may have been better with more of him in it, his scenes are the funniest in the movie. The jokes may border on slapstick from time to time, but Beetlejuice is undoubtedly a funny film which will make you want to say the name once, twice, and most certainly three times over!
Cinema Sweet rating: 8/10
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