Beetlejuice

This article is about the film. For other uses, see Beetlejuice (disambiguation). For the star, see Betelgeuse.

Beetlejuice
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Tim Burton
Produced by	Larry Wilson Michael Bender Richard Hashimoto
Screenplay by	Michael McDowell Warren Skaaren
Story by	Michael McDowell Larry Wilson
Starring	Michael Keaton Alec Baldwin Geena Davis Winona Ryder Catherine O'Hara Jeffrey Jones Glenn Shadix Sylvia Sidney
Music by	Danny Elfman
Cinematography	Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing by	Jane Kurson
Studio	The Geffen Film Company
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	March 30, 1988 (1988-03-30)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$73,707,461

Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros. The plot revolves around a recently deceased young couple who become ghosts haunting their former home and an obnoxious, devious "bio-exorcist" named Betelgeuse from the underworld who tries to scare away the new inhabitants permanently. The film stars Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Sylvia Sidney, and Michael Keaton as the titular Betelgeuse (the film's title being a phonetic spelling of the character's name).

After the success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Burton was sent several scripts and became disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality. When he was sent Michael McDowell's original script for Beetlejuice, Burton agreed to direct, although Larry Wilson and Warren Skaaren were hired to rewrite it.

Beetlejuice was a financial and critical success, grossing $73.7 million from a budget of $13 million. The film spawned an animated television series that Burton produced. A sequel, Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, was scripted but never produced.

Plot

Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) decide to spend their vacation decorating their idyllic New England country home. While the young couple is driving back from town, Barbara swerves to avoid a dog wandering the roadway and crashes through a covered bridge, plunging into the river below. They return home and, based on such subtle clues as their lack of reflection in the mirror and their discovery of a Handbook for the Recently Deceased, begin to suspect they might be dead. Adam attempts to leave the house to retrace his steps but finds himself in a strange otherworldly dimension referred to as "Saturn," covered in sand and populated by enormous sand worms.

After fleeing back into their home, the Maitlands' peace is soon disrupted when their house is sold and obnoxious new residents, the Deetzes, arrive from New York City. The new family consists of Charles (Jeffrey Jones), a former real estate developer; his second wife Delia (Catherine O'Hara), an aspiring sculptor; and his goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) from his first marriage. Under the guidance of interior designer Otho (Glenn Shadix), the Deetzes transform the house into a gaudy piece of pastel-toned 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 of the house, it is up to them to scare them away. The Maitlands' attempts at scaring the family away prove utterly ineffective.

Although the Maitlands remain invisible to Charles and Delia, their daughter Lydia can see the ghost couple and befriends them. Against Juno's advice, the Maitlands contact the miscreant Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), a freelance "bio-exorcist" ghost, to scare away the Deetzes; but Betelgeuse becomes more interested in marrying Lydia so that he can re-enter the land of the living. It takes the combined efforts of the Maitlands and Lydia to defeat Betelgeuse. The Deetzes and the Maitlands decide to live together in harmony. At the film's conclusion, Betelgeuse is seen waiting in the afterlife reception waiting room, where he angers a witch doctor, who shrinks his head.

Cast

• Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as Adam and Barbara Maitland: A young, married couple who are killed in a car accident and become ghosts. Before death, they own a hardware store. 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 and stepdaughter of Delia Deetz, a goth adolescent. She is the only one of the family who can see the Maitlands and quickly befriends them — notably, she wishes she were a ghost like them. At the end of the film she was nearly forced to marry Betelgeuse.
• 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 clip coupons." Charles moves his family to the countryside to recover.
• Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse: Juno's former assistant, an obnoxious, perverted and chaotic "bio-exorcist" (a ghost who scares away humans for other ghosts) who carries a grotesque physical appearance. The character's age and how he came to die are not revealed, but he refers to having lived through the Black Death and having seen The Exorcist. The character's name is spelled in multiple variations throughout the film, as either "Beetle Juice" or "Betelgeuse".
• Glenn Shadix as Otho: A friend of Delia. Otho is an interior designer and former paranormal expert.
• Sylvia Sidney as Juno: The Maitlands' case worker in the afterlife. She recommends that the Maitlands do not accept the help of Betelgeuse.

Production

Betelgeuse at Universal Studios Hollywood.

The financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) 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 the offered 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 Beetlejuice, 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 Betelgeuse 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."

Beetlejuice's 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 intention to make the style similar to the B movies he 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 (1984) and Full Metal Jacket (1987), though Furst was committed on High Spirits (a choice he later regretted). He hired Bo Welch, his future collaborator on Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Batman Returns (1992). The test screenings were met with positive feedback and prompted Burton to film an epilogue featuring Betelgeuse foolishly angering a witch doctor. Warner Bros. disliked the title Beetlejuice 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.

Story development

Michael McDowell's original script is far less comedic and much more violent; the Maitlands' car crash is depicted graphically, with Barbara's arm being crushed and the couple screaming for help as they slowly drown in the river. A reference to this remained in all versions of the script,^{[citation needed]} as Barbara remarks that her arm feels cold upon returning home as a ghost. Instead of possessing the Deetzes and forcing them to dance during dinner, the Maitlands cause a vine-patterned carpet to come to life and attack the Deetzes by tangling them to their chairs. The character of Betelgeuse—envisioned by McDowell as a winged demon who takes on the form of a short Middle Eastern man—is also intent on killing the Deetzes rather than scaring them, and wants to rape Lydia instead of marry her. In this version of the script, Betelgeuse only needs to be exhumed from his grave to be summoned, after which he is free to wreak havoc; he cannot be summoned or controlled by saying his name three times, and wanders the world freely, appearing to torment different characters in different manifestations. McDowell's script also featured a second Deetz child, nine-year-old Cathy, the only person able to see the Maitlands and the subject of Betelgeuse's homicidal wrath in the film's climax, during which he mutilates her while in the form of a rabid squirrel before revealing his true form. The film was to have concluded with the Maitlands, Deetzes, and Otho conducting an exorcism ritual that destroys Betelgeuse, and the Maitlands transforming into miniature versions of themselves and moving into Adam's model of their home, which they refurbish to look like their house before the Deetzes moved in.

Warren Skaaren's rewrite drastically shifted the film's tone, indicating the graphic nature of the Maitlands' deaths while depicting the afterlife as a complex bureaucracy. Skaaren's rewrite also altered McDowell's depiction of the limbo that keeps Barbara and Adam trapped inside of their home; in McDowell's script, it takes the form of a massive, empty void filled with giant clock gears that shred the fabric of time and space as they move. Skaaren had Barbara and Adam encounter different limbos every time they leave their home, including the "clock world", and the Sandworm's world, identified as Saturn's moon Titan. Skaaren also introduced the leitmotif of music accompanying Barbara and Adam's ghostly hijinks, although his script specified Motown tunes instead of Harry Belafonte, and was to have concluded with Lydia dancing to "When a Man Loves a Woman". Skaaren's first draft retained some of the more sinister characteristics of McDowell's Betelgeuse, but toned down the character to make him a troublesome pervert rather than blatantly murderous. Betelgeuse's true form was that of the Middle Eastern man, and much of his dialogue was written in African American Vernacular English. This version concluded with the Deetzes returning to New York and leaving Lydia in the care of the Maitlands, who, with Lydia's help, transform the exterior of their home into a stereotypical haunted house while returning the interior to its previous state. Retrospectively, McDowell was impressed at how many people made the connection between the film's title and the star Betelgeuse. He added they had received a suggestion the sequel be named Sanduleak-69 202 after the former star of SN 1987A.

Soundtrack

Beetlejuice
Film score by Danny Elfman and Harry Belafonte
Released	1988
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	36:00
Label	Geffen
Producer	Geffen Studios
Danny Elfman chronology
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) Beetlejuice (1988) Batman (1989)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Filmtracks

The Beetlejuice soundtrack, first released in 1988 (LP, CD & cassette tape), features most of the score (written and arranged by Danny Elfman) from the film. The soundtrack features two songs which appeared in the film, performed by Harry Belafonte; "Day-O" and "Jump In The Line (Shake, Shake Senora)". Two other Harry Belafonte songs that appeared in the film are absent from the soundtrack; "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" and "Sweetheart From Venezuela". The soundtrack entered the Billboard 200 albums chart the week ending June 25, 1988 at #145, peaking two weeks later at #118 and spending a total of six weeks on the chart. This was after the film had already fallen out of the top 10 and before the video release later in October. "Day-O" received a fair amount of airplay at the time in support of the soundtrack.

Reception

Beetlejuice 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. Beetlejuice was a financial success, recouping its $13 million budget five times, and was the tenth-highest grossing film of 1988. Based on 42 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Beetlejuice received an average 81% 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 Beetlejuice 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 Beetlejuice had "the perfect balance of bizarreness, comedy and horror".

Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, citing that the film "...tries anything and everything for effect, and only occasionally manages something marginally funny..." and "is about as funny as a shrunken head". Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, writing that he "...would have been more interested if the screenplay had preserved their [Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis] sweet romanticism and cut back on the slapstick." For Keaton's character, Ebert called him "...unrecognizable behind pounds of makeup..." and stated that "...his scenes don't seem to fit with the other action..."

Accolades

At the 61st Academy Awards, Beetlejuice won the Academy Award for Best Makeup, while the British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominated the film with Best Visual Effects and Makeup at the 42nd British Academy Film Awards. Beetlejuice won Best Horror Film and Best Make-up at The Saturn Awards. Sylvia Sidney also won the Saturn for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Juno, and the film received more nominations with Direction, Writing, Music, Special Effects and Best Supporting Actor (Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse). Beetlejuice was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Beetlejuice was 88th in the American Film Institute's list of Best Comedies.

The film is ranked #88 on American Film Institute's list of 100 Years...100 Laughs.

Animated series

Due to the film's financial success, an animated television series of the same name was created for ABC. The show ran for four seasons, lasting from September 9, 1989 to December 6, 1991. Tim Burton himself served as executive producer.

Sequel

In 1990, Burton hired Jonathan Gems to write a sequel titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. "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 Betelgeuse becomes a hero by winning a surf contest with magic. Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder agreed to do the film, on the condition that 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 hired 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 Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?" In March 1997, Gems released a statement saying "The Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian script is still owned by The Geffen Film Company and it will likely never 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."

In June 2010, Michael Keaton announced his interest in returning for a Beetlejuice sequel. On September 8, 2011, IGN reported that Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, is currently working on a new Beetlejuice movie. On October 27, 2011, Smith revealed more information about the project, stating that the film is a sequel to Beetlejuice that takes place 26 years after the original film. Currently, they have Tim Burton on board (although his capacity is currently unknown) and hope to get Michael Keaton back for the sequel, but that they haven't approached him yet because the script is still being written. It is unknown if any other cast members from the previous film will return.

See also

• Beetlejuice (video game)

External links

• Beetlejuice at the Internet Movie Database
• Beetlejuice at AllRovi
• Beetlejuice at Box Office Mojo
• Beetlejuice at Rotten Tomatoes
• Beetlejuice at Metacritic
• Geoff Boucher (2008-10-15). "Tim Burton talks about Johnny Depp, 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Dark Knight'"Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/10/tim-burton-talk.html. Retrieved 2008-10-15.