Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
Once upon a time, Alec Baldwin was attractive, MTV played music videos and Winona Ryder made good movies. This all-but-forgotten era is now known as the ’80s and it gave us many pop culture gems, not the least of which is “Beetlejuice,” a campy little flick worth a watch this All Hallow’s Eve.
The aforementioned Baldwin is Adam, and he and his wife Barbara, played by Geena Davis, are struggling to hang on to their beautiful home while eager buyers vie for it. But after fending off nosy neighbors and mysterious new inhabitants of their home, they realize they are fresh new members of the afterlife.
After the fateful car accident they thought they had survived, Adam and Barbara must band together as they explore the afterlife hand in hand, but it gets a bit sticky when an obnoxious metropolitan couple and their moody, sullen daughter move in to their vacant home.
A marvelously melancholy Winona Ryder is Lydia, a disenchanted youth who has reluctantly been relocated to the middle of nowhere. When she discovers the dead duo and is magically able to see them, unlike her parents, she is more than willing to do anything she can to help kick her parents out of the house for good.
As Adam and Barbara wander through the wonderful world of the deceased, they find that haunting is tricky business and after meeting a host of deranged, disturbing dead folks, they admit to themselves that they’re in way over their heads.
Who better to help than a heavily-made-up Michael Keaton as the obnoxious, take-no-prisoners Beetlejuice? Beetlejuice is an expert con artist in the land of the no-longer-living and he runs an ad for the desperate couple that advertises his unique brand of services.
Eager for any sort of solution, Adam and Barbara call bio-exorcist Beetlejuice to help them solve their pesky problem. Unfortunately for the two, Beetlejuice turns out to be more of a pain than a problem-solver, and they find themselves deep in paranormal debt.
It will come as no shock to fans of the genre that the delightfully eerie, kitschy mind behind “Beetlejuice” is Tim Burton, the man who brought us “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Edward Scissorhands” and the incredibly creepy remake of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
If you’re a member of the scaredy-cat crowd, “Beetlejuice” is the Halloween movie for you. There’s no reason you can’t take part in the fun of quality holiday entertainment just because you’re a major wimp. “Beetlejuice” is packed with cheesy special effects and easily-won laughs.
Plus, did I mention that Alec Baldwin is good-looking in this? I’m talking pre-overgrown-chest-hair and right-wing-Republican-on-“30-Rock” attractive. Trust me on this.
Keaton is a brilliantly unexpected villain here, having perfected comedic timing, slapstick and an evil cackle all in one character. Davis and Baldwin are a believable, naive young couple having just crossed over, but the real stand-out, apart from Keaton, is Ryder as the depressive Lydia, with her deadpan humor and gothic getup.
“Beetlejuice” is proof that Halloween flicks don’t need to be out for a scare to be a success. It was commercially well-received, ultimately grossing almost $75 million in the box office. While Winona Ryder moved on to forgettable chick flicks and Geena Davis became a blip on the star-scape after a memorable performance in “A League of Their Own,” Baldwin and Keaton continue to find success in Hollywood.
Just as Bogart and Bergman will “always have Paris,” Davis, Ryder, Baldwin and Keaton will always have “Beetlejuice” to look back on and we’ll always have it for a laugh when Halloween rolls around.
