Nick Rudick
Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse. Say his name only three times and he’ll appear (wish my dog would take notes). Beetlejuice is one of those 1980s movies that you don’t really get tired of. Created from the great mind of Tim Burton, Beetlejuice is the dead that helps the dead. Adam and his wife Barbara died unexpectedly when Adam grabs the wheel from Barbara and the crash through a wooden bridge to avoid hitting a dog (a true gentleman). Unbeknownst to them, they died and ended back at their home that they’ve worked so hard for. Only being dead what seems like 30 minutes, their nosy of a neighbor who happens to be a realtor, puts their house up for sale and sells it to a small dysfunctional family who’s wanting to get out of the hustle and bustle of New York. Charles is some type of real estate tycoon. His (2nd) wife Delia is a “abstract” artist (if that’s even what you’d call her pieces), and daughter Lydia thinks the whole world is a dark place and doesn’t want to be here anymore (same here girl).
Not liking what Delia is wanting to do to their dream home, Adam and Barbara enlist the Handbook for the Recently Deceased that was provided to them when they you know, recently deceased. Since they couldn’t decipher what the book was saying, they try their caseworker Juno for help. Juno pretty much tells them to figure it out on their own and send them back to their home. But Juno warned them to not use Beetlejuice, for he does not work well with others. Did they listen? Did the Clintons not have anything to do with Epstien’s death? So, they say his name three times, and up pops up good ole Beetlejuice.
Beetlejuice is what you’d picture a country bumpkin who does not get out much and does not have much interaction with women. He’s got his hands all over Barbara, and tries to lure away Adam from her. Not liking what services he was going to provide (obviously), the leave the scale model town Adam built and try to scare the family away themselves…by putting sheets with eye cutouts over themselves so that they can be seen. Very, very scary.
Once Juno found out that they had tried to enlist the help of Beetlejuice, Juno calls Adam and Barbara back to her office and tells them to stop talking to humans and scare them off once and for all. So, Adam and Barbara try one more scare move by morphing their faces into these weird looking beings. Buuuutttt when Beetlejuice senses that they were trying to scare the family again, he decides to join in and give the family a BIG scare by turning into a snake (um, thanks but no thanks). Scaring Lydia and thinking that Adama and Barbara had something to do with it, she pretty much tells them off and runs to her room, slams the door just like every teenager that doesn’t get their way.
Impressed by what “Adam and Barbara” did to scare them, Charles and Delia try to get Lydia to get the ghost to come back to scare them to impress their friends. Not wanting to come back, Lydia tells them that they don’t want to come out. Since Otho (Delia’s teacher and bff) Otho tries some sort of spell on Adam and Barbara to bring them back to the living, only for the spell to fail and it actually turns out killing Adam and Barbara (only he would be able to kill someone who’s already dead). Frantically trying to save them, Lydia brings back Beetlejuice, but only if Lydia agrees to marry him. Being a dumb teenager, she agrees so that she can save Adam and Barbara.
Saving Adam and Barbara from the spell that Otho had seemed to mess up and scaring everyone else, Beetlejuice grabs Lydia and tries to make her his wife. Cut to Beetlejuice in a red tux and Lydia in a red wedding dress, he snatches her up and brings her to the makeshift altar that appears from the fire place in the house and tries to marry her. Sidenote; to summon Beetlejuice, the same person must say his name three times. To get rid of Beetlejuice, the same thing happens again. Adam comes back from being dead (again) and manages to say Beetlejuic’s name once. Out of fear, Beetlejuice throws Adam to the scale replica of the town in the to get rid of him. Barbara, also resurrected from dying manages to say Beetlejuice’s name twice before he sends her away to the sand dunes. Managing to get out of the scale model town, Adam drives a little truck that he crashes into Beetlejuice’s feet and Barbara shows up riding a giant monster worm type thing and it eats up Beetlejuice, and then everything goes back to normal…?
Overall, the movie is an awesome movie. It’s a Halloween classic to watch every year. 10/10 would recommend to anyone who wants to have watch when having a Halloween party. It’s funny, a little sleazy (courtesy of the character Beetlejuice), and a fun family movie. Would I want a remake to bring it back into the 21st century? No, you can’t mess with a classic.
