Beetlejuice [1988 film]

A ghost couple is bad at haunting.

The delightful weirdness is at odds with the misguidedly Hollywood-ized plot, but Burton forces the weirdness to the top.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: C

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.5/4

(Feb. 2012)

An eccentric view of the afterlife, an amusing view of how materialists would react to a haunting. I wish it moved faster at the climax.

When a recently-deceased ghost couple find their now-vacant home invaded by an obnoxious family, they hire a sleazy ghost who gets rid of humans to help them.

Thanks to an untimely demise via drowning, a young couple end up as poltergeists in their New England farmhouse, where they fail to meet the challenge of scaring away the insufferable new owners, who want to make drastic changes. In desperation, the undead newlyweds turn to an expert frightmeister, but he's got a diabolical agenda of his own.
(source: TMDb)

Before making Batman, director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton teamed up for this popular black comedy about a young couple (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) whose premature death leads them to a series of wildly bizarre afterlife exploits. As ghosts in their own New England home, they're faced with the challenge of scaring off the pretentious new owners (Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones), whose daughter (Winona Ryder) has an affinity for all things morbid. Keaton plays the mischievous Beetlejuice, a freelance "bio-exorcist" who's got an evil agenda behind his plot to help the young undead newlyweds. The film is a perfect vehicle for Burton's visual style and twisted imagination, with clever ideas and gags packed into every scene. show more Beetlejuice is also a showcase for Keaton, who tackles his title role with maniacal relish and a dark edge of menace. --Jeff Shannon show less

PG-13