A Look Back at Beetlejuice (1988)

 

With the newest Beetlejuice movie just around the corner, it's time to look at the first movie.

Beetlejuice is a dark fantasy horror comedy and the first installment to the Beetlejuice franchise. It was produced by The Geffen Company and distributed by Warner Bros. Beetlejuice was written by Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren, and Larry Wilson and directed by Tim Burton.

The story is, a recently deceased couple are now ghost and want to leave at their house in peace, but the newest family moving in will ruin those plans. Against their better judgment, the couple call upon bio-exorcist Betelgeuse to scare them away.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Nope, nothing here. Just keep scrolling.

• Positives

One pro is the humor. It's very funny in it's attempts at dark comedy. There's even scenes funny moments that leaves you shocked, mainly cause they were really pushing it with their PG rating. And sometimes the comedy doesn't even come from the physical stuff but some really good bits of dialogue.

The other great aspect of the movie is Danny Elfman's score. Danny has made many great pieces of music throughout the history of cinema, and his score for Beetlejuice is one of them. I think what makes it amazing is it sounds like music you'd hear at a dark carnival. And considering some of the dark and odd things Tim Burton makes, perfect fit.

Then there's the pacing. The movie's runtime is one hour and thirty-two minutes, and you just breeze by. I mean it, after watching this it didn't feel like I sat on my couch for that long. But even with that short feeling I still felt like I got a fully told story.

My next point is the special effects. While things looked weird with the sand worms, the rest of the special effects have aged incredibly well. But I should also praise the design of the movie. Each set has its own unique look very different from each other. That also goes for anyone who's dead in this movie. Just by looking at their design you already get a story or a brief glimpse of how their character died. Such as one guy who's body is entirely charred.

The last thing I'll praise is Michael Keaton's performance. Other than Batman, Beetlejuice is also an iconic role for Keaton. What really impressed me is, while his normal voice can pop up once in awhile, once he gets rid of that and starts acting like his deviant, fast-talking, ghost with the most character, you also most forget it's Keaton underneath all of the makeup. I mean it, sometimes Keaton just disappears into Beetlejuice, which gets me excited of what we'll see from him in the upcoming sequel.

Whether you watch this whenever you feel like it or watch this during the Halloween season, Beetlejuice is an absolute classic.

My final rating is, A Must Watch.

Okay that's a wrap. Come back on Saturday, Sept 7th, for my review of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.