Tim Burton’s second feature was this 1988 triumph, his first collaboration with novelist Michael McDowell (not counting the McDowell scripted, Burton helmed 1988 ALFRED HITCHOCK PRESENTS episode THE JAR). BEETLEJUICE began as a McDowell authored screenplay whose POLTERGEIST-inspired conception involved a haunted house, with the point of view transposed from the mortals to the ghosts. Burton heavily retooled the script, adding much of his own sensibility and emerging with one of the most authentically Burtonesque films of all time.
Connecticut residents Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) reside in perhaps the weirdest looking house in America. It overlooks one of those impossibly cozy Northeastern towns that exist only in movies, and where the Maitlands are drowned in a car accident caused by a stray dog. Afterward Adam and Barbara find themselves stuck inside their house, where they don’t cast reflections and find a book called THE HANDBOOK FOR THE RECENTLY DECEASED. Outside the house is a surreal desert infested with DUNE-inspired sandworms.
Before long Charles Deetze (Jeffrey Jones), his Goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder), her artist stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) and their obnoxious servant Otho (Glenn Shadix) move into the place, and transform it into a hideously pretentious art gallery. The peeved Maitlands attempt to scare off the Deetzes, but succeed only in attracting the attention of Lydia, who unlike most mortals can see ghosts because “Real people ignore the strange and unusual (whereas) I myself am strange and unusual.”
The Maitlands turn to Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), a renegade “Bio-Exorcist” who resides in a model town in the house’s attic, and who can be summoned–and banished–simply by saying his name three times. Adam and Barbara are warned against calling up “Beetlejuice” by the afterlife caseworker Juno (Sylvia Sydney), but they do, and once summoned this pervy and obnoxious ghost proves extremely hard to get rid of.
Back in 1988 Burton hadn’t entirely found his footing, as is evident in BEETLEJUICE’s uncertain pacing and mistimed comedy. His visual genius, however, is fully evident in the art direction, whose cheapness is made to seem like an aesthetic choice (Burton tried a similar approach in the more expensive BATMAN, where it didn’t work nearly as well). That exuberantly fantastic and irrational aesthetic is assured enough to encompass levitation, astral projection, morphing flesh, people shrinking down to insect size, bodily possession and a richly detailed afterlife without any confusion or disbelief on the part of the viewer.
The work of Burton’s collaborators is of crucial importance. The production design of Bo Welch and visual effects of Alan Munro fully convey Burton’s conception of the afterlife “as a cheap science fiction movie,” while the colorful visuals of cinematographer Thomas Ackerman offset the morbidity of imagery that includes mangled corpses and severed limbs. Even more crucial to the overall effect is the music of Danny Elfman, who was coming off Burton’s debut feature PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE (1985), and provides a macabre yet high-spirited score that finds a comfortable middle ground between those two extremes.
In the title role Michael Keaton (who’s said to have ad-libbed ninety percent of his dialogue) makes a sizeable impression despite his limited screen time, and the 17-year-old Winona Ryder as Lydia (her breakthrough role) is one of the screen’s preeminent Goth girls. Rounding out the well-chosen cast are the veteran Hollywood starlet Sylvia Sydney (whose filmography ranges from THE SORROWS OF SATAN, 1926, to Burton’s MARS ATTACKS!, 1996), the TV legends Dick Cavett and Robert Goulet, Burton regular Jeffrey Jones, SCTV legend (and future HOME ALONE co-star) Catherine O’Hara, a pre-stardom Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, who once again demonstrates his ability to fully adapt himself to whatever genre he’s working in.
Vital Statistics
BEETLEJUICE
Geffen Company
Director: Tim Burton
Producers: Michael Bender, Richard Hashimoto, Larry Wilson
Screenplay: Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren
Cinematography: Thomas Ackerman
Editing: Jane Kurson
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Robert Goulet, Dick Cavett, Glenn Shadix, Sylvia Sydney, Susan Kellermann, Adelle Lutz, Annie McEnroe, Maurice Page, Hugo Stanger, Rachel Mittelman, J. Jay Saunders, Mark Ettlinger