The Afterlife's Leading Bio-Exorcist

 I want to say last year was the first time in quite some time that I revisited Tim Burton's hilariously, cleverly, ingeniously plotted "afterlife horror comedy". It might have been the first time since the 90s, which is quite a while considering, Beetlejuice (1988) was on all the time when I was a youth. I had a sister who constantly had it on rotation. I just remember it being very much a part of life during the early and mid-90s. I can remember the hoopla around "Beetlejuice" even before "Batman" (1989) became a phenomenon when I was a teenager. This is when Alec Baldwin was a bit slimmer, geekier, sweeter and Geena Davis was on the cusp of superstardom, evident even before with her tragic romantic love interest to tormented scientist, Goldblum, in Cronenberg's "The Fly" (1987), and a really terrific part in the sadly forgotten cable mainstay, "The Accidental Tourist" (1988) and a small but cute harried newspaper employee in "Fletch" (1985). She is just adorable as the unfortunate wife to Baldwin, the young couple fallen to a terrible drowning thanks to an unconcerned dog, a bad turn into a "barn bridge", and a very loose plankboard said doggy hopped off of sending their vehicle into a big splash upside down. Not really equipped at adjusting to the afterlife once they return home, the Maitlands (Baldwin and Davis) lose their home to a capitalizing realtor (one who was around everyday to remind them they don't need such a big house considering no child was part of their family) with a most unusual family from New York City (the setting is a small town in Connecticut). Jeffrey Jones is a recovering real estate broker, Catherine O'Hara (just two years before "Home Alone") an eccentric sculptor (her use of branches and stone craft very insect-looking designs), and Winona Ryder their glum, dour goth daughter looking for affection since her parents are so consumed with their own self-interests. So the film does serve to provide the Maitlands with someone missing: a daughter, in Ryder's Lydia. O'Hara as the self-absorbed "artiste", Delia, who needs her space to create her art (or she will "go insane and take her husband with her") while cuckolded husband, Jones' Charles, just endures because he clearly wants peace and quiet (Baldwin's Adam has an office with bird pictures and books, just a comfy little place to relax). Glenn Shadix has a scene-stealing part as home designer (among other "talents" he so claims in his many compliments to himself) Delia devotes so much attention and loyalty to (his Otho clearly latches onto naive wannabe artists, leeching them for perks and money). 

So the film has this clash of lifestyles which makes for some fun on screen comparison. The Maitlands are simple-living in domestic bliss, just without a child. Clearly they are unassuming and perfectly suited to smalltown Connecticut life while the city-slickers from New York intrude upon their solitude and comfort (as much as is possible being dead and unable to leave the house without falling into some netherworld sandpit complete with two-headed earthwork with lots of teeth) to run amok the carefully cultivated countryhouse vibe so important to the newly dead couple. Particularly Delia and Otho apply their outre art "chic" to most of the house, renovating what was The Maitlands' preferred homey Rockwellian design. I so thoroughly enjoy how Tim Burton and company take an absurd afterlife premise and leave plenty of room to make fun of the snooty, snobby, self-involved New York art scene types, pretentious city real estate business execs (and their equally narcissistic wives), and the agents (and their wives) who exist within these people. Such as Dick Cavett (as Delia's agent, admitting her work was losing money) and Robert Goulet (as Charles' boss, not particularly interested in long conversation with him, the phone hung up with the disregarded remark of, "Putz") in some fun casting choices. But for my money the "caseworker" part of Juno for Sylvia Sidney is the great piece of casting that really stands out...her slit throat seeping cigarette smoke with every puff as her raspy-voiced Juno tries to wrangle the Maintlands into proper action to be rid of the Deetzes after much trouble (they are discovered, their afterlife "guide" taken by Otho who uses it to "conjure" them unwillingly, and their inability to frighten the Deetzes away after multiple attempts has been quite the failure) is such a brilliant bit of "dead humor". 

The idea that the dead need a caseworker and there is this afterlife office that helps the dead to get it together (it's no surprise the dead need to get acclimated and doing so requires assistance from those seemingly exhausted and overworked!) cracks me up every time. 

Just all the paperwork, how the dead are exactly as they were upon death (poor guy needing the rail to move him wherever he needs to go because he is basically a splat with tire tracks, the impatient office secretary who was a pageant model (now green with slit wrists), a hunter with a shrunken head due to confrontation with a tribal witchdoctor, a victim with the shark still attached to his leg, a badly burned victim barely held together (but still toking on his smokes), and a victim with his seafood apron the unfortunate recipient of a stuck fishbone!), the need for a janitor (Simmy Bow, eerily died from a stroke before this film's release, with that great creepy face and delivery), and this hanging man carried by rail throughout the office (doesn't seem to be much help as there are papers scattered and lots of clutter and messiness); the operation seems strained to say the least! Juno, to be honest, isn't really of much help; more or less, Juno scolds the Maitlands but doesn't really offer the sound advice needed to run off the Deetzes. The afterlife handbook for the deceased, full of jargon and gobbledygook that's hard to comprehend is what Juno stands by, so the Maitlands try to go the old-fashioned route with bed sheets...epic fail. And the use of Harry Belafonte music, "shrimp monster hands", and "song and dance" to frighten the Deetzes also fails miserably.

But there is an alternative: Betelgeuse, a supposed leading bio-exorcist, played with absolute madcap, coke-fiend, gonzo insanity by Michael Keaton. Keaton--with his caked-white face, slimy, rot-teeth, dusty, filthy coat and rags, and disheveled blond hair flaming out of his head--is quite an explosion of perversion, gross-out, and frenzied movement. He can't stand still, speaks at rapid-fire pace with lots of disgusting remarks Barbara Maitland certainly doesn't stomach (she gets a big yucky smooch on the lips!), and operates at striking fear to the living in his own hostile way that isn't exactly championed by Juno (she tells the Maitlands that he was one her uncooperative assistant). When he emerges as a "Beetle-Snake" (its a stop motion hideous concoction of snake with rattling tail and monstrous Beetlejuice head with protruding teeth), Otho is tossed down the stairs while Charles is lifted upside down and dropped to the floor from quite a distance! Delia is more or less coiled and scared away. It's a brief example of what Beetlejuice is capable of. His later setpiece involving unfolding "inflatable arm hammers" dinging bells that send Goulet and his wife through a roof is quite a funhouse nightmare. I particularly enjoyed how Delia's art pieces serve as "prisons" for her and Charles while Otho suffers the pains of being shed of his particular style of wardrobe for a color not to his liking...how could such a victim be degraded so?

There are lots of setpieces, so many I often forget about them, only to be reminded upon rewatch how neat the screenplay and sight gags are. The fly being seduced towards Betelgeuse's "grave" through a candy bar, before he snatches it for lunch, the whorehouse that Adam explains in shock to Barbara wasn't created for his incredible town model table set Betelgeuse attends to let off some anxiety, the severed dead beauty in fishnets whose waist and legs are separate from the rest of her as she attends to some reading while waiting for her caseworker (and a later scene, socking Betelgeuse for groping her leg), the grotesque monster designs formed by Adam and Barbara from their face (including some unique use of their eyes) as a last ditch effort to scare the Deetzes, the magnificent aforementioned model table set of the town the Maitlands live is just a work of art, poor Charles and his efforts to keep his good spirits with the overbearing O'Hara, O'Hara and Shadix teaming together to critique with great contempt the tastes of the Maitlands and their home, everything Ryder does (I think it was clear she was going places, and this is the film that I was introduced to her, later seeing her in "Heathers" (1989) and, of course, "Edward Scissorhands" (1990)) pretty much is appreciated more and more by me every time I watch this (her tone and sad face and eyes, her approach to the Maitlands, and how unfazed by the dead Maitlands she is I have always personally loved; and, honestly, I was smitten with her), and all the makeup effects and stop motion effects remain as impressive to me as they did then. But the whole attempted marriage is quite a standout as the deteriorating Maitlands are "helped" by Betelgeuse (the withering skin to Davis, and when Adam's teeth fall out are classic), recovering from a devastating aging process, hoping to send him back to where he belongs before he forces Lydia to be his wife. The zipper and metal block to Davis' mouth, Davis later riding the earthworm that eats Betelgeuse (the worm design just has "The Nightmare Before Christmas" all over it), Baldwin in the miniature car, Betelgeuse dressed in plaid and khaki mimicking Adam's clothing attire, Betelgeuse revealing "what lies underneath" his face to the Maitlands (we just sort of get an idea but only they truly see his face of horrors), the dialogue that Keaton just ad-libs with poor Baldwin and Davis trying to keep up (even his voice out of Davis' mouth much to her Babs' surprise), among other things are such a treat, even if Beetljuice is always presented as a repulsive, ugly, dumpster fire of a creature. That manic pace to which Keaton operates is incredible. And the casting of this film is impeccable. 4.5/5. 

I've realized this is one of my favorite Burton films. I am glad I decided to revisit it last year after about probably nearly 20 years. I almost waited to watch this in October, but it has such imaginative setpieces and such a particular design for the afterlife I just couldn't hold it off.