21/20

I went to Juilliard

Scenario

The ghosts of a deceased couple are tormented by an obnoxious family who have moved into their home and hire a malevolent spirit to chase them away. This is Michael Keaton’s favorite movie. Otho’s shoes when he spray paints the walls of the house change from fire truck red elf shoes to white sneakers when he walks through the bathroom, then back to red elf shoes when he enters the next room. Adam: What are your qualifications? Beetlejuice: Oh. Well… I graduated from Harvard Business School.

I travel a lot

I survived the Black Death and had a great time back then. I’VE SEEN THE EXORCIST ABOUT A HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN TIMES AND IT’S FUNNIER EVERY TIME… NOT TO MENTION YOU’RE TALKING TO A DEAD MAN… NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK? Do You Think I Qualify?. The Geffen Company logo is adorned with a macabre version of the song Banana Boat (sung by the film’s composer, Danny Elfman). A working version of the film was released with several additional/alternate scenes.

Instead of a desert, he sees an empty darkness filled with spinning cogs

This version of the film is about 2 minutes shorter than the theatrical version, has a few additional scenes and is missing a few others, is in black and white, and has a timecode at the bottom. This version has 4 main differences: Alternate Scene: The scene where Adam tries to leave the house after he and his wife die is different. Additional Scenes: There is an additional scene where Lydia develops photos she took of Adam and Barbra. Then, after her mother yells at her and tells her off for poking holes in the sheets, Lydia runs upstairs and tries to convince her father that the photos are real. The scene where the adults are searching for ghosts in the attic is longer and we see the Desert Monster trying to eat Adam and Barbra, who are hanging out of the attic window. There is an additional 2-minute scene at the end where we see Lydia riding her bike home from school and her parents are on the phone with Jane, telling her they don’t want to sell the house. Lydia’s dance scene is shorter in this version and there is no Beetlejuice waiting room scene.

Day-OTraditional, lyrics by William A

The film ends with a final shot of the house from the outside, edited into Terror Toons (2002). Attaway and Irving Burgie [Incorrectly attributed as written by William A. Attaway and Irving Burgie (as Lord Burgess)] Performed by Harry Belafonte Courtesy of RCA Records. Watching it again on TV yesterday reminded me of the first time I saw it in theaters years ago, when Tim Burton was just the guy who made that funny Pee-wee Herman movie. Walking into Beetlejuice back then, knowing nothing about it, was an incredible experience. Along with “Blade Runner,” “Blue Velvet,” “Videodrome,” “Brazil,” “Paris, Texas,” “Terminator,” and “Repo Man,” it’s one of the most amazing and memorable movies of the 1980s, an era dominated by Hollywood crap like “Flashdance,” “Top Gun,” and “Footloose.” The whole spirit of the Bruckheimer/Simpson/Spielberg/Hughes era, which made popular movies more superficial than ever. Movies like Beetlejuice were a beacon of hope in a truly terrible time.

Everything about it is perfect

The big question is, how is it doing today? The answer is better than ever! In fact, I would say that Beetlejuice is Tim Burton’s most successful and least compromised film. A wonderful cast with the very likeable and sympathetic Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the recently deceased Maitlands, star Michael Keaton as the main character of the crazy “bio-exorcist” and the strong support of Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O’Hara and especially Winona Ryder (the game that really made her famous) as the new residents of the Maitland house.