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Beetle Juice (also known as Beetlejuice) is a 1988 comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones and Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice. The plot revolves around a recently deceased couple who seek the help of obnoxious "bio-exorcist" Beetlejuice in order to remove the new owners of their quaint New England house, a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City.
After the success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Burton was sent scripts and became disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality.
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Quotations
Category:1980s films
Category:Comedy films
(writing) I am alone. (scratches out; writes) I am UTTERLY alone.
Adam: Barb, honey, we're dead. I don't think we have very much to worry about any more.
Barbara: I don't know where it came from, look at the publisher.
Barbara: It just says won't. God this book is so stupid I can't understand anything in it.
Bernard: Delia, you are a flake, you have always been a flake. If you insist on frightening people, do it with your sculpture.
Encyclopedia
Beetle Juice (also known as Beetlejuice) is a 1988 comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones and Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice. The plot revolves around a recently deceased couple who seek the help of obnoxious "bio-exorcist" Beetlejuice in order to remove the new owners of their quaint New England house, a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City.
After the success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Burton was sent scripts and became disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality. Burton agreed to direct Michael McDowell's script for Beetle Juice, but Larry Wilson and Warren Skaaren performed rewrites. Beetlejuice was a financial and critical success, garnering an animated television series and an unproduced sequel titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.
Plot
Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam (Alec Baldwin) Maitland decide to spend their vacation decorating their idyllic New England country home. Upon returning from the trip to town, however, Barbara swerves to avoid a dog wandering the roadway. The couple's vehicle crashes through a covered bridge and plunges into the river below, killing Barbara and Adam. The couple soon returns home in spirit form and, based on the fact they have no visible reflection in the mirror, quickly come to the conclusion that they are dead. A book entitled Handbook for the Recently Deceased confirms the couple's suspicion that they are, in fact, dead. Adam then attempts to leave the house to retrace his steps, but finds himself in a strange otherworldly dimension referred to as Saturn, which happens to be covered in sand and populated by enormous sand worms.
After going back into their home to seek refuge, Barbara and Adam's peace is soon shattered when their house is sold and the new residents arrive from New York City. The Deetzes, consisting of Charles (Jeffrey Jones), aspiring sculptor and Charles' second wife Delia (Catherine O'Hara), and Charles' goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) from his first marriage, move into the home. Under the guidance of interior designer Otho (Glenn Shadix), the Deetzes begin transforming the house into a horrific piece of modern art. The Maitlands seek help from their afterlife case worker, Juno (Sylvia Sidney), who informs them that they must remain in the house for 125 years. If they want the Deetzes out, it is up to them to scare them away. The Maitlands' attempts at haunting their home prove ineffective.
Although the Maitlands remain invisible to Charles and Delia, their daughter Lydia can see Adam and Barbara and becomes their friend. Against the advice of Juno, the Maitlands contact the miscreant Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a freelance "bio-exorcist", to scare away the Deetzes, but Beetlejuice is more interested in marrying Lydia in order to re-enter the land of the living. It takes the combined efforts of the Maitlands and Lydia to defeat Beetlejuice and banish him to the afterlife. The Deetzes and the Maitlands then decide to live together in harmony. At the end of the movie, Beetlejuice is seen waiting in the afterlife reception waiting room, where he unwisely angers a recently witch doctor.
Cast
- Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as Adam and Barbara Maitland: A young, married couple who are killed in a car accident. Adam is a highly-skilled miniature model maker, while Barbara enjoys fixing items around their home.
- Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz: Daughter of Charles Deetz (Delia is actually her stepmother), a goth adolescent. She is the only one of the family who can see the Maitlands and quickly befriends them.
- Catherine O'Hara as Delia Deetz: Wife of Charles and stepmother to Lydia, as well as an aspiring (but pretentious) sculptor.
- Jeffrey Jones as Charles Deetz: A previously cutthroat and successful contractor whose nerves went and now "only wants to relax and cut out coupons." Charles moves his family to the countryside to recover.
- Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice: Juno's former assistant, an obnoxious and perverted "bio-exorcist" who carries a grotesque physical appearance. The character is a mystery; his age and even how he came to die remain unknown, but he refers to having lived through The Black Plague.
- Glenn Shadix as Otho: A friend of Delia. Otho is an interior designer and former paranormal expert.
- Sylvia Sidney as Juno: The Maitlands' social worker in the afterlife. She recommends that the Maitlands do not accept the help of Beetlejuice.
Production
The financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure meant that Tim Burton was now considered a "bankable" director, and Burton 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 greenlight Batman. Meanwhile, Burton had begun reading through the scripts that had been sent his way, and was becoming disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality, one of them being Hot to Trot. David Geffen handed Burton the script for Beetle Juice, written by Michael McDowell (who wrote the script of The Jar, an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents directed by Burton).
Larry Wilson was brought on board to continue rewrite work with McDowell, though Burton replaced McDowell and Wilson with Warren Skaaren due to creative differences. Burton's original choice for Beetlejuice was Sammy Davis Jr, but Geffen suggested Michael Keaton. Burton was unfamiliar with Keaton's work but was quickly convinced. Burton cast Winona Ryder upon seeing her in Lucas. Catherine 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."
Beetle Juices budget was $13 million, with just one 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 intentions to make the style similar to the B movies Burton 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 and Full Metal Jacket, though Furst was committed on High Spirits (a choice he later regretted). He hired Bo Welch, his future collaborator on Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns. The test screenings were met with positive feedback and prompted Burton to film an epilogue featuring Beetlejuice foolishly angering a witch doctor. Warner Bros. disliked the title Beetle Juice 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.
Reaction
Beetle Juice opened theatrically in the United States on April 1, 1988, earning $8,030,897 in its opening weekend. The film eventually grossed $73,707,461 in North America. Beetle Juice was a financial success recouping its $13 million budget five times, and was the tenth-highest grossing film of 1988. Based on 39 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Beetle Juice received an average 82% overall approval rating. By comparison, Metacritic received an average score of 67 from the 13 reviews collected.
Pauline Kael referred to the film as a "comedy classic", while Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader gave a highly positive review. Rosenbaum felt Beetle Juice carried originality and creativity that did not exist in other films. Roger Ebert called it anti-climactic, explaining "the story, which seemed so original, turns into a sitcom fueled by lots of special effects and weird sets and props, and the inspiration is gone." Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a farce for our time" and wished Keaton could have received more screen time. MaryAnn Johanson was impressed with the casting, production design and jokes. Desson Howe of the Washington Post felt Beetle Juice had "the perfect balance of bizarreness, comedy and horror".
At the 61st Academy Awards, Beetle Juice won the Academy Award for Makeup, while The British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominated the film with Best Visual Effects and Makeup at the 43rd British Academy Film Awards. Beetle Juice won Best Horror Film and Best Make-up at The Saturn Awards. The film received more nominations with Direction, Writing, Music and Special Effects. Beetle Juice was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Beetle Juice was eighty-eight in the American Film Institute's list of Best Comedies.
Awards and honors
American Film Institute recognition
Sequel
The success of the film brought an animated television series called Beetlejuice on ABC. The show lasted on from September 9, 1989 to December 6, 1991, and Tim Burton served as executive producer.
Burton hired Jonathan Gems to write a sequel titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian in 1990. "Tim thought it would be funny to match the surfing backdrop of a beach movie with some sort of German Expressionism, because they're totally wrong together," Gems reflected. The story followed the Deetz family moving to Hawaii, where Charles is developing a resort. They soon discover that his company is building on the burial ground of an ancient Hawaiian Kahuna. The spirit comes back from the afterlife to cause trouble, and Beetle Juice becomes a hero by winning a surf contest with magic. Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder agreed to do the film, but only if Burton directed, but he became distracted with Batman Returns.
Burton was still interested with Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian in early-1991. Impressed with Daniel Waters' work on Heathers, Burton approached him for a rewrite. However, he eventually signed Waters to write the script for Batman Returns. By August 1993, producer David Geffen had Pamella Norris (Troop Beverly Hills, Saturday Night Live) to rewrite. Warner Bros. approached Kevin Smith in 1996 to rewrite the script, though Smith turned down the offer in favor of Superman Lives. Smith responded with, "Didn't we say all we needed to say in the first Beetle Juice? Must we go tropical?" In March 1997, Gems stated that the "Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian script is still owned by The Geffen Film Company and it will never likely get made. You really couldn't do it now anyway. Winona is too old for the role, and the only way they could make it would be to totally recast it." As late as January 2005, Keaton still had high enthusiasm for a sequel, while in February 2006, Burton claimed a sequel was not in the works anymore.
In Other Media
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