Beetlejuice is Back!
It’s time to go back to Winter River! That’s right, Beetlejuice is back and sure to cause some mayhem. Hitting cinemas on September 5th, it’s the perfect movie to get you into the Halloween spirit. We take a little look back at the original film and what we’re expecting from its sequel.
The original Beetlejuice movie caused quite a stir when it was released in 1988. An early work from the King of Quirk, Tim Burton, it turned the tables on the typical ghost movie. In Beetlejuice, Adam and Barbara Maitland, a lovely young couple played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, die in a car accident and return to their home as ghosts. Trapped in the house for 125 years by the supernatural rules that govern ghosts, they find their home sold and taken over by a horrible family.
The family consists of a father, Charles Deetz, played by Jeffrey Jones, his death-obsessed daughter, Lydia, played by Winona Ryder, and his second wife, Delia, the delightful Catherine O’Hara. Early drafts had a bigger family, and more background on their departure from New York, however, the details that made it into the film suggest that Charles had a breakdown and left New York for a quieter life, uprooting his family to a small town in Connecticut. Lydia’s mother, named Emily in the musical that followed, has died and Lydia is struggling to deal with the fallout.
Early attempts to scare the family away are unsuccessful until Adam and Barbara discover that Lydia can see them. Lydia attributes this to the fact that she is ‘strange and unusual’. It may also help that Lydia has read their ‘Handbook for the Recently Deceased’ and was expecting to see ghosts. Lydia works with Adam and Barbara to scare her family, but they ultimately love the idea that their home is haunted and want to monetise it as a tourist attraction.
The Maitlands then call on the help of a ‘bio-exorcist’ named Betelgeuse to help rid them of the human pests. Betelgeuse is played by Michael Keaton and, despite his limited screen time, is the heart of the film. Crude, vile and all-round disgusting, Betelgeuse is a mouldy, decaying ghost who has been around for about 600 years and loves to cause his own brand of mayhem.
While Betelgeuse is not as bad as the demonic murderer the original drafts of the scripts had envisioned, he’s still an out-of-control force that the Deetzes and the Maitlands need to defeat. He decides to force marriage on Lydia in an attempt to break the shackles that limit his access to the mortal world.
The film uses the calypso music of Harry Bellafonte to great effect. The dinner party scene where the Deetzes and their guests are possessed by the Maitlands and sing Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) has lived on in clips and memes to this day. This song also led to the film being nominated for the American Film Institute's Top 100 America's Greatest Music in the Movies in 2004. It made the shortlist of 400 movies but ultimately failed to make the final list.
From a modest budget of $15 million, the original film only spent about $1 million on visual effects. Knowing the limitations of the budget, Tim Burton purposefully made the effects look funny and handmade. A variety of methods were employed including in-camera tricks, stop motion, miniatures, and animation, as well as more traditional CGI work. Word is that the sequel, despite its increased budget, will also employ a similar variety of techniques to create its movie magic.
The film spawned an animated series that ran from 1989 until 1991, as well as video games and a musical that opened on Broadway in 2019. The musical is set to hit Aussie shores in April 2025. There were also plans for a sequel film titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, however, the script was never finished to satisfaction and Tim Burton and Michael Keaton got caught up in the Batman movies. As the years passed, it became difficult to tell a continuing story as the cast aged.
The sequel that we’re finally getting is set about 35 years in the future, with Lydia all grown up with a family of her own. The story centres around the family returning to Winter River after the death of Charles Deetz. Lydia’s daughter Astrid, played by Jenna Ortega of Wednesday fame, opens a portal to the underworld and gets whisked away. Lydia bites the bullet and summons Betelgeuse to help save her daughter.
While Tim Burton has said that the point of Betelgeuse as a character is that he doesn’t evolve and will remain as politically incorrect as ever, we see that another new addition to the cast is Monica Bellucci as Betelgeuse’s wife, Dolores, who died in terrible circumstances. Perhaps there’s hope for some redemption for him after all?
From the chilling opening strains of a choirboy singing Day-O in the trailer, we know we’re going to be transported back to a funny and scary place, thanks to Tim Burton, the Master of the Macabre. It’s time to buy your tickets and buckle up because we know we’re in for a wild ride!
