Beetlejuice

Rating: 5/5

Filled with Tim Burton's strange, colorful, and bizarre trademarks, Beetlejuice is definitely one of the famed director's best.

Simple and happily married couple, Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam (Alec Baldwin) Maitland, are excited for their at home vacation. On their way home from a routine trip to the hardware store, the Maitland's swerve their car to avoid hitting a dog, and their car plunges off a bridge and into a river.

When the Maitland's return to their home, they begin to notice peculiar changes in the house, including a book titled "Handbook for the Recently Deceased". Along with the realization that they are ghosts, comes a new family that has bought their home and plans to invade and completely renovate it. In order to rid their beloved house of its' new inhabitants, the Maitlands take to drastic measures and look into hiring a bio-exorcist named Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton). What seemed like a good idea quickly turns into more than they bargained for, and the Maitlands find themselves way in over their heads.

Tim Burton's career has proven that he is a master of the unusual, and Beetlejuice is a prime example of that. From the very beginning, this film is unlike any other, but Burton's style exudes such a sense of confidence, that you don't question any of the offbeat choices that he makes. He has the ability to take a scene of a claymation sand snake chasing Alec Baldwin, not only appear sensical and important to the plot, but somehow, almost normal.

With a cast full of colorful roles, it is expected that the title character would be the most memorable. Michael Keaton's role could have been seen as an impossible task. He had the challenge of creating a character who lacks any real life reference, and also had to make it so Betelgeuse wouldn't be so far fetched that the audience would lose any connection with him. Not only did Keaton generate a character that perfectly matched the tone and atmosphere of the film, but he also created an icon. Of the numerous Tim Burton characters and films, Keaton's Betelgeuse is most certainly one of the most legendary.

Part of what makes almost any Tim Burton film so compelling, is his use of visual effects and color. Having the family that moves into the Maitland's home be into surreal design aesthetics, allows for Burton to stretch his creativity to its' farthest reach, and in turn have an extremely unique setting for an equally odd story. That's one of the great things about Beetlejuice; there's so much going on in the house, that every time you watch it, you notice something new.

Beetlejuice is a movie that I took too long to finally watch. For the longest time I had an aversion towards Tim Burton films, and I think that is because for a short period of time, I had only seen the work of his that had received less than stellar reviews. Once I saw Beetlejuice, I was immediately hooked on the story and style, and now it is always one of my go to movies to watch during the Halloween season.

1989 Academy Award Winner for Best Make Up- Ve Neil, Steve LaPorte, and Robert Short