Tropic Sprockets / Beetlejuice (1988)

By Ian Brockway 

If you like your scare fare on the lighter side, “Beetlejuice” is a colorful film from the 80s era. As Tim Burton’s second film, it is a semi-departure from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” (1985) and his first Halloween feature. While it is decidedly cartoonish, it is madcap and delights the eye. [For Tropic Cinema showtimes and a trailer, click here)

Model maker Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) are in their country home on vacation. But something is wrong:The two of them don’t know they are newly dead.

The new owners Delia (Catherine O’Hara) and Charles (Jeffrey Jones) quickly move in with their goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) determined to make a home in a house that looks like a Lego set from Coastal Living magazine.

Adam and Barbara as ghosts are horrified. Much like a New Yorker cartoon from Charles Addams, Burton has free reign here quoting everything from “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari“ to “The Fly” and “The Exorcist.”

While Pop art horror mania is the order of the day, Burton has a lot of fun with his manic cataloging of films.

Enter Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) a nonstop chattering riddler of riotous sights or in this case a bio-exorcist who promises to rid the house of yuppie mortals. But there is one catch: the humans fall for the ghosts.

Michael Keaton brings most of the humor. Here he is so ultra-charged one wonders if he or Beetlejuice himself is on amphetamines. Keaton is a dynamo in one of his most iconic roles. The actor himself has been known to say that Beetlejuice is his very favorite character.

If you are overwhelmed by this devilish dervish, focus instead on Dick Cavett who becomes possessed into doing an indescribable dance as well as some preposterous twerking but still delivers a pithy one liner. 

The film is no doubt geared for younger audiences in the mode of Pee Wee Herman, yet it possesses a precocious knowledge of art history. Many artists are referenced, Salvador Dali, MC Escher and Yves Tanguy.

Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” is “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” with mascara and black lipstick, a realm where a possessed Michael Keaton in mimicking the voice of Mercedes McCambridge merges with Fred Flintstone. 

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com

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