Burton's PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985) or EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990) were fresh and original. His use of color was bright and vivid which balanced the twisted and macabre undercurrents to those films. Another early original hit for Burton was a supernatural comedy that I had avoided for no good reason except that I wasn't a huge Michael Keaton fan at the time and the trailers had Caribbean music that seemed strange for a ghost film. That movie was BEETLEJUICE (1988).
All of Burton's visual and thematic motifs that pop up in most of his films can be found in BEETLEJUICE. Gruesome sight gags and gallows humor. Cartoonish colors. A subversive perspective on events. And, a character that represents Burton's alter ego aka the lonely, misunderstood outcast. From Edward Scissorhands and Z movie director Ed Wood to Ichabod Crane and even Batman, Burton films often center around a character that doesn't fit in with the normal crowd, a misfit. BEETLEJUICE was written by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren (who co-wrote Burton's BATMAN) based on a story by Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson
Newlyweds Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) live in a giant four story white house in the Rockwell like town of Winter River, Connecticut (actually East Corinth, Vermont). While on their way back from the hardware store they own, the couple swerve to miss hitting a dog and drive off a covered bridge, drowning in the river below. They return to their home to discover their both dead. Unable to leave their house and not sure how to behave as poltergeists, they discover a book called Handbook for the Recently Deceased left conveniently in their attic. They have been dead for three months. An annoying new family from New York is already moving in. Charles Dietz (Jeffrey Jones) wants peace and quiet after a nervous breakdown from his high stress Manhattan job. Delia Dietz (Catherine O'Hara) is his wacky artist wife. Lydia Dietz (Winona Ryder) is their moody Goth daughter. Adding to the chaos is Delia's conceited interior decorator Otho (Glenn Shadix).
Delia and Otho want to change everything in the house, angering Barbara. She and Adam try to scare the new owners away but they can't see them. However, Lydia can see the dead couple, spotting them looking out the attic window. Lydia tries to connect with them but she's initially locked out of the attic. In the attic, the television turns on briefly, showing a commercial promoting a bio-exorcist spirit named Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) who guarantees to get rid of the living. Adam and Barbara discover a portal in the attic, leading to a waiting room for the dead. They wait amongst a magician's assistant sawed in half and a tourist with a shrunken head. Finally, they meet their case worker Juno (Sylvia Sidney). Juno tells them to follow the handbook to scare the new owners away. And whatever they do, don't seek troublemaker Betelgeuse (a former assistant of hers) to help them.
Adam and Barbara attempt to scare the Dietz's again and fail. But they finally meet Lydia. Lydia tries to convince her parents the poltergeists are real but they just laugh. The ghosts finally seek out Betelgeuse, repeating his name three times. But Betelgeuse is not what they expect. He's rude and lecherous. The Dietz's throw a dinner party that night which includes Delia's agent Bernard (Dick Cavett). Adam and Barbara attempt a calypso haunting (using Harry Belafonte's song "Day O") on the party. Instead of scaring everyone, the Dietz's now want to meet the ghosts. Adam and Barbara refuse. The Dietz's invade the attic looking for the ghostly former tenants. They're no where to be found but Otho grabs the Handbook as they leave. Betelgeuse takes his turn at scaring the living, becoming an enormous rattlesnake. He's thwarted by Juno who tricks him into visiting an otherworldly whorehouse where he's temporarily trapped.
Juno gives Adam and Barbara an ultimatum. Scare the Dietz's out of the house. Charles hosts his former real estate partner Maxie Dean (Robert Goulet) for another dinner party, trying to convince Maxie into developing the New England town and its ghosts. Maxie wants to see the spirits. Otho summons Adam and Barbara with the Handbook via a séance. They materialize but the spell makes both Adam and Barbara begin to decay. Lydia seeks Betelgeuse to save the Maitland's. But with Betelgeuse back to full power, who will rescue Lydia from the lecherous, scheming Betelgeuse?
With BEETLEJUICE, Burton gets to play with the conventions of the haunted house story, turning that genre on its head. The deceased Matiland's first attempt to frighten their new living owners with traditional scare tactics: a hanging body and a decapitated head held by its owner. But the living can't see them. Later, the Maitland's try the old bed sheets with cut out eyes and moaning trick. Still nothing. These ghosts aren't very good at scaring people. Their next attempt is more clever yet just as futile. Turning a dinner party into a levitating, body possession calypso party. This is not your standard ghost story. BEETLEJUICE'S wicked black humor hearkens to Edward Gorey's ghoulish The Addams Family cartoons. It's surprising that Burton didn't direct THE ADDAMS FAMILY (Barry Sonnenfeld would in 1991). But Larry Wilson who received a story credit for BEETLEJUICE would co-write THE ADDAMS FAMILY with a favorite Burton writer Caroline Thompson (EDWARD SCISSORHANDS). Burton's shot at another TV horror brand would come with 2012's DARK SHADOWS based on the daytime television soap opera.
Besides the black comedy and macabre imagery, BEETLEJUICE is sentimental at its core. Adam and Barbara Maitland are a sweet, innocent young couple. Their initial death shocks us. Their naiveness towards their mortality touches us. The film hints that Adam and Barbara have been unsuccessful so far conceiving (although Adam suggests they try during their early stay home vacation). But Adam and Barbara find their child in the Dietz's daughter Lydia. She's the only one initially who can see them. When Lydia contemplates suicide, they talk her out of it. Lydia loathes her step mother Delia. At the film's end, Adam and Barbara have adopted Lydia or they're at least surrogate parents to her.
BEETLEJUICE like Burton's earlier PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE is very organic with its special effects. Neither film had a big budget so Burton uses his imagination and his creative team's ingenuity for some of his wild ideas. That's what makes Burton's early films refreshing and original. The effects are cheesy (and pre-CGI) but fun. Betelgeuse turning into a giant rattlesnake is one of the best scenes. Burton has fun with a scaled down model of the town that resides in the attic. He inverts the model into a full size set for the characters to roam around i.e. Adam and Barbara first meeting Betelgeuse in the cemetery. And the waiting room scene allows Burton to go black humor with its inhabitants: a suicidal beauty queen, a shark attack victim (with the shark still attached to his leg), and a football team whose plane crashed. Nothing is off limits in BEETLEJUICE.
A running motif in Tim Burton films are characters with eyes bulging out. The female truck driver Large Marge in PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, the Martians in MARS ATTACKS!, and the witch in SLEEPY HOLLOW all have eyes protruding far out of their eye sockets. Usually, it's a surprising, shocking moment. BEETLEJUICE has its share. When Barbara hangs herself in the closet to scare the new owners to no avail, she goes crazy bug-eyed at her failure. Betelgeuse himself frightens the Maitland's with a gruesome face change (although Burton shoots that bit from behind Betelgeuse).
1988 would be a good year for Michael Keaton. Besides BEETLEJUICE, Keaton would garner critical acclaim for his role as a recovering drug addict in Glenn Gordon Caron's CLEAN AND SOBER. As Betelgeuse, Keaton seems to be channeling Robin Williams with his manic performance as the demented spirit. But it's a totally original character. With his gruff voice, wild hair, and un-PC comments, Betelgeuse is like a dirty supernatural uncle. Burton would surprise everyone and select Keaton to play Bruce Wayne in BATMAN (and its 1992 sequel BATMAN RETURNS). A daring choice but it paid off for both of them as their careers would soar. It made me a fan of Keaton.
Alec Baldwin's role as Adam in BEETLEJUICE may be one of Baldwin's more understated performances. He's low key throughout the whole film (as opposed to his alpha male part in James Foley's 1992 GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS). Baldwin and Geena Davis as his wife Barbara Maitland are wonderful as unfortunate ghosts who can't seem to get the hang of scaring the living. They have great chemistry and are the nicest people in the entire film to identify with. Now a major film star, BEETLEJUICE was only Baldwin's third feature after starting out on soap operas and TV shows like KNOTS LANDING (1984-85). Davis was coming off the hit horror film THE FLY (1986) by David Cronenberg. Davis's career would continue to shine in films like Ridley Scott's THELMA AND LOUISE (1991) and Penny Marshall's A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992).
Another newcomer in BEETLEJUICE is Winona Ryder as the Dietz's troubled daughter Lydia. BEETLJUICE was only Ryder's third feature film. Ryder's Lydia is the prototype Burton character (although a supporting one in BEETLEJUICE). Lydia is a loner, misunderstood, different. These characters (who reflect how Burton felt growing up) can be seen in most Burton films from PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS to the talented orphans in MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (2016). Ryder can currently be seen as an adult dealing with unusual kids in Netflix's STRANGER THINGS. Ryder would follow up BEETLEJUICE working with Burton on his next project EDWARD SCISSORHANDS starring Johnny Depp.
Burton has always surprised with casting some of his favorite horror actors in supporting roles. Burton's childhood horror film favorite Vincent Price makes one of his final appearances in EDWARD SCISSORSHANDS as Edward's kindly creator. Burton cast Hammer horror legends Christopher Lee in SLEEPY HOLLOW and DARK SHADOWS and Michael Gough in BATMAN. With BEETLEJUICE, Burton has some eclectic faces. Silver screen star Sylvia Sidney (who starred in Hitchcock's 1936 thriller SABOTAGE) plays the Maitland's case worker Juno. Burton also gives us talk show host Dick Cavett and Broadway star Robert Goulet in small but enticing roles.
BEETLEJUICE has some nice references and nods to other horror films and even a satire magazine sprinkled throughout the film. There's a joke about an insect that pays homage to the original THE FLY (1958). When Lydia discusses people returning from the dead with the Maitland's she mentions George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968). There seems to be a nod to David Lynch's DUNE (1986) with some giant sand worms that patrol another dimension just outside the Maitland's house when they attempt to leave. The craziest homage (and maybe it's just me) is not to a film but a satirical magazine. When Adam and Barbara make their faces into bizarre shapes thanks to Betelgeuse's spell toward the end of the film, they both resemble the crows from Mad Magazine's SPY vs SPY cartoon (and there's those popping eyeballs again).
It's possible that Tim Burton himself is feeling the same way about returning to his roots. The movie website IMDB recently showed on its Tim Burton profile that BEETLEJUICE 2 was announced to be happening. However, Tim Burton himself during the recent DUMBO press tour, was less enthusiastic about it. Burton doesn't need to do a BEETLEJUICE sequel. He just needs to find a small, original idea or screenplay from some new writer to excite him the way BEETLEJUICE excited his creative juices back in 1988. Maybe if I just say "Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse" three times, an original script will arrive at Burton's door. Let's hope for something new and never before seen from the wunderkind who has grown up.
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