TL;DR – Delightfully odd in a way I am not sure you could capture today. 

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Beetlejuice Review –

When I was invited to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, I was intrigued, given just how much social legacy the first film Beetlejuice had. But then, as I sat there thinking about the original movie, it dawned on me: I had watched it, right? But for the life of me, I could not remember if I had actually watched it? Or was it one of those films that you have just absorbed through the osmosis of the decades? Well, there is only one way to fix a dilemma like that, and that is to remove all doubt.

So, to set the scene, we open as Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) plays with his model town as he and his wife Barbara (Geena Davis) holiday at their holiday home. It is a beautiful time for all, right up until they swerve to miss a dog and are killed in the crash, not that they know they are dead for a while. They try to find purpose in the afterlife, but that is shattered when a new family, Charles (Jeffrey Jones), Delia (Catherine O’Hara), and Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), arrives. They want to change everything, but there might be hope when the daughter catches a glimpse of the couple looking from a window. But when they can’t get anyone to leave, they do something everyone was warned against: they say “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” (Michael Keaton).     

While this was a film made in the 80s, it was a pleasant surprise to see just how much of it still holds up today. Part of that was, of course, its reliance on practical effects, stop-motion, and prosthetics work that tends to hold up a bit better over time. Now, that is not to say that everything still looked fresh, with a couple of moments standing out more than a penguin in the Sahara, but the film is almost 40 years old, so you do have to cut it some slack. Indeed, the whole production side of this film is a delight. I loved all the sets they built when we jumped down into the model world. To add to this, Danny Elfman’s musical score was a wonderful combination of fun and off-putting, and I loved how he built the theme up in layers to achieve that off-kilter feel.   

Then we have the cast, who are just having a blast on screen. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis make a great double act as the recently deceased Maitlands, and they do an excellent job of making you sympathetic to the dead. The Deetz are not the worst people you have ever met, but they are just obnoxious, which makes a good counterpoint for the narrative. Winona Ryder does become the moral centre of the film as it progresses, and I think that was the right choice. The big surprise for me was how little Beetlejuice is actually in the movie, with him only getting two big sequences, though he floats around in the margins for a lot of the proceedings. Whatever the case, Michael Keaton chews every bit of scenery that he can get his hands on. Watching him switch streams 180º in the middle of a scene is so jarring yet apt for the character he was playing.

Where I am not sure if the film has held up over the years comes down to more of the narrative and themes more than anything else. The narrative itself is straightforward in such a way that there is a rigidity here that I was not expecting. However, that was more interesting than anything else. But more than this, there was an uncomfortable glibness around parts of death, including the mannerisms of said deaths, which sometimes you understand why it is played for laughs. Yet, other times, it feels macabre, even in a film like this.       

In the end, do we recommend Beetlejuice? Yes, we would. Some parts have not aged all that well, but that is to be expected with a 40-year-old film. But if nothing else, it was fascinating to watch a movie that has clearly been influential across the genre ever since its release. If you liked Beetlejuice, we would recommend to you Ready or Not.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Beetlejuice?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Beetlejuice
Directed by – Tim Burton
Screenplay by – Michael McDowell & Warren Skaaren
Story by – Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson
Music by – Danny Elfman
Cinematography by – Thomas E. Ackerman
Edited by – Jane Kurson
Production/Distribution Companies – The Geffen Company & Warner Bros Pictures.
Starring – Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O’Hara & Winona Ryder with Sylvia Sidney, Robert Goulet, Dick Cavett, Glenn Shadix, Annie McEnroe, Simmy Bow, Maree Cheatham, Carmen Filpi, Tony Cox, Jack Angel, Susan Kellermann, Adelle Lutz & Patrice Martinez
Rating – Australia: M;