THE GHOST WITH THE MOST

 

Beetlejuice

Release date: March 30, 1988

Writers: Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren and Larry Wilson

Director: Tim Burton

Main Cast:

•             Alec Baldwin as Adam Maitland

•             Geena Davis as Barbara Maitland

•             Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz

•             Jeffrey Jones as Charles Deetz

•             Catherine O'Hara as Delia Deetz

•             Glenn Shadix as Otho Fenlock

•             Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse

•             Annie McEnroe as Jane Butterfield

•             Sylvia Sidney as Juno

•             Robert Goulet as Maxie Dean

•             Dick Cavett as Bernard

•             Maree Cheatham as Sarah Dean

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(Rating 5 of 5)

Summary: (Spoilers! After all it’s a summary. Stop reading if you don’t want a spoiler.) Adam and Barbara Maitland are a young couple living in Winter River, Connecticut.  They own a successful hardware store, and Adam is also a bit of an artist who built a model replica of their hometown that is in the attic. Everything is going well for them, but one thing.  They have been dealing with fertility struggles as they are trying to start a family. Their real-estate agent cousin Jane has already given up on their family dreams and has—by herself—decided that their house big for a couple and has started shopping their house to others and trying to entice her cousins with offers. This annoys the couple to no end.

Unknowingly on the last trip of their lives!

               Adam decides he needs to stop at their store and pick up and order that he had placed to add to his town model.  Barabra accompanies him and they make it to the store without incident.  On the way back, however, a small dog walks in front of their vehicle forcing them to swerve and crash through the side of the bridge.  As their lives literally hanging in the balance with their car tilting toward the water, the same dog jumps upsetting the careful balance and sending the Maitlands into the water.  The Maitlands drown and the moral of the story so far is not to swerve for small dumb animals that wouldn’t stop and care for you.    

The end, sort of!

That night the Maitlands return home as spirits unaware that they are dead.  After a strange incident with the fire, Adam realizes that he doesn’t remember how they got back to the house. He decides to go back to the bridge but the moment he steps out of the house he finds himself on an alien world and almost gets eaten by a giant sandworm.  His wife reaches out for him and pulls him back through the door.  What was a mere second for Adam was hours for Barbara.  During his absence she discovered that they cast no reflection and there is a new book in their house called: Handbook for the Recently Deceased.  Barbara then utters the famous line, “I don’t think we survived the crash.”

Handbook for the Recently Deceased

Reading the handbook is an ever source of frustration as it reads “like stereo instructions.”  As the Maitlands adjust to their new existence as spirits, they realize that they are stuck in a limbo-like state. Their initial shock leads to a gradual acceptance of their fate, but they quickly discover that their beloved home has been sold to a new family. The Deetz family, arrive from New York City. Charles Deetz is a former real estate developer; his second wife, Delia, is a sculptor and conceptual artist; and his teenage goth daughter from his first marriage, Lydia, is an aspiring photographer. Charles is here to relax and get out of the stress that led to a recent mental breakdown.  Lydia is here because as a kid she has to be here.  Delia is trying to support her husband, but she needs to “express herself.”  She brings her friend and mentor Otho Fenlock.  Otho is an interior designer who will help Delia transform the house into a new-wave work of postmodern art.

The living who are "haunting the house"

The Maitlands try to scare the Deitzes away by using their ghost abilities to alter their forms into something terrifying.  However, since the Deitzes and Otho can’t see them all their attempts are useless.  Consulting the Handbook, the Maitlands create a doorway to the netherworld and arrive at an otherworldly waiting room populated by other distressed (even more distressed than them) souls. It turns out that the afterlife is structured according to a complex bureaucracy involving vouchers and caseworkers. The civil servants are all those who committed suicide.  Each soul they encounter seems to be wearing death: their ghost forms broadcast how they died.  One was attacked by a shark, a sleepy smoker, a lady who was literally cut in half, a safari explorer who had his head shrunk.  The Maitlands who don’t seem to care how they died don’t seem to manifest this. 

The waiting room!

They are told they can meet Juno now and, on their way, run into “the lost souls” room.  The janitor explains that these are the souls of the exorcised ghosts.  Inside these ghosts are moaning and they look rotted with disease.  When they finally reached the door, they were assigned to, the Maitlands entered a weird room.  Although they quickly realized that they were in their own house.  They have been time distorted again. They have been gone for three months.  They meet their caseworker Juno, who is next to useless, she explains some things but not very well.  When they mention these ghost ads they have been seeing for Beetlejuice, she tells them his story that he was once her assistant who went on his own as a bio-exorcist who claims he can get rid of the living.  She says he is dangerous, and they want nothing to do with him, and he can only be brought back by chanting his name three times. 

Frustrated they go back to trying to scare the Deetzes.  This time they cut holes in bed sheets and wear them so they will be seen.  This doesn’t work Charles thinks its Lydia and Delia is “sleeping with Prince Valium tonight.”  Lydia takes pictures of them and when she sees no feet in the picture, she realizes they’re ghosts.  It turns out Lydia can see them even though no one else can.  When they ask why she says their handbook says that the “strange and unusual can see them.”  Adam is impressed that she is able to understand the manual. 

Although they like Lydia they still want the Deetzes gone and in their desperation, they decide to summon Beetlejuice by saying his name three times. They encounter Beetlejuice in his miniature graveyard.  At first, they don’t see him, but they find his grave and they are required to dig him up. When they do, he flies out and strongly and weirdly embraces them.   Beetlejuice tries to convince them he can help get rid of the Deetzes.  He displays some of his shapeshifting powers, which unlike the Maitlands, he can do at will without having to physically perform the act.  He also shows his procession abilities that are so strong he can affect other ghosts.  However, his lewd and aggressive behavior puts them off.  Barabra screams home three times leaving Beetlejuice behind and making him angry.

Seeking the help of someone they don't understand!

Beetlejuice’s use of possession powers gives Adam an idea.  Delia hosts a dinner party with friends to show off her home and sculptures. During the meal, the Maitlands possess the guests, forcing them to perform an impromptu dance to "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)."  As the Maitlands wait for the living people to all flee in terror they find themselves disappointed.  The New Yorkers all thought the possession dance was fun.  They go over Lydia’s pictures and ask her to go bring them down.  When she tells the party that they refuse, Delia’s friends leave enraging her.  She and the rest go up to the attic and demand entry.  As they enter, they find no one there but they are impressed with Adam’s model.  Otho finds the handbook and takes it.

As they leave Beetlejuice enters taking the form of a giant snake.  He nearly kills Charles and terrifies the rest of the family.  Barabra says his name three times to make him disappear.  Lydia runs off angry, and the Maitlands confront Beetlejuice, who is once again trapped in the model.  Their argument ends when Beetlejuice is distracted by a whore house, that Juno created to distract him.  She summons the Maitlands back and tells them about the missing handbook.  She has the Maitlands transform themselves into monsters to finally scare the Deetzes away.  They leave and Juno is left dealing with the dead football players.

Showing the Maitlands how to expose true fear!

On their way back the Maitlands have a change of heart.  They really like Lydia and don’t want to drive her family away.  They return just in time to stop Beetlejuice from tricking Lydia into saying his name three times and letting him loose. 

Charles’s boss Maxie Dean and his wife Sarah arrive to see the ghosts.  Since they weren’t cooperating earlier, they turn to Otho to make something happen.   Otho decides to hold a séance using the “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” to summon the Maitlands. However, the séance goes wrong, and the Maitlands begin to wither away as they are forcibly conjured into physical form.  Otho failed to recognize that by doing this he was exorcising them and condemning the spirits to become lost souls.

Since the town model was moved downstairs for Charles’s presentation Lydia doesn’t need to go far to find Beetlejuice.  He claims he can help them but says he wants to be out of the netherworld for good.  The only way he can do that is if he gets married.  Lydia agrees to free and marry him if he saves the afterlives of her friends.  With Beetlejuice released he quickly ends the séance disposes of Maxie and Sarah Dean and sends Otho running.  With that he wants his marriage to happen.

Beetlejuice summons an afterlife minister and transforms his and Lydia’s outfits to wedding clothes from Hell.   Beetlejuice traps Lydia’s parents with Delia’s sculptures that he has animated.  He forcefully silences the Mailtands by pulling Adams teeth and gums out of his head and chasing them off, and sealing Barabra’s mouth with a zipper then steel.  He makes a mistake of sending Adam to the model and Barabra to Titian.  Adam uses a toy truck to delay Beetlejuice, and Barabra rides a sandworm into the house, which devours Beetlejuice just before the wedding can be completed.

The Deetzes and the Maitlands come to an understanding, coexisting peacefully in the house. Lydia is happier and has found a new sense of family with the Maitlands. The house has been transformed back into its old state.  Lydia now has two sets of parents who will help guide her in life. 

The film closes with Lydia performing well in school, cheered on by the Maitlands as they celebrate their unconventional new family dynamic.   In the afterlife’s waiting room, Beetlejuice attempts to skip the line by tricking the witch doctor that Elvis was there but is punished by the very witch doctor who shrinks his head.  The Maitlands continue to enjoy their afterlife, while Beetlejuice, still stuck in the waiting room, humorously accepts his fate.

My Take: (Lots of Spoilers in this section too!  Yup spoilers.) One of my favorite movies of all time.  I loved as a kid, so much that I watched the cartoon as well.  As an adult I still rank it high as one of the best movies I have seen.  It is so original that no other movie is quite like it.  When describing it to someone else you can’t say, “well it’s sort of like X.”  It is probably the most unique thing to come out of Hollywood in the last fifty years. 

The afterlife as it is presented in Beetlejuice is part of that original take.  There is nothing amazing or grand about it.  The afterlife is just like life with rules, regulations, and procedures.  There doesn’t be any money needed or taxes required to pay, which is a plus. I imagine it must be a shock to many of the ghosts when upon dying they learn their religion was wrong.  And from what we see they were all wrong.  I don’t know of a single faith that describes what we see here.  Of course, this state is said to last only 125 years.  What happens after that is anyone’s guess.  Is there an after-afterlife?  I smell a new religion being formed in the Netherworld.

There are only two elements that are in the Beetlejuice afterlife that I find familiar.   Handbook for the Recently Deceased could be compared to ancient Egypt’s Book of the Dead.  The second element is the prohibition of suicide.  It is clear why many religions that to have something like this.  When you describe Heaven as the perfect place of paradise that is even greater than anything life can offer, you are naturally creating a situation where people will actually want to die.  So, you set it up so that that death by suicide is a cheat that won’t get you to the awesome place and may get you somewhere else. Of course, the difference in the film’s afterlife is instead of internal damnation you are just forced to become the civil servants.

 When I was a kid, I thought the movie made being a ghost really cool.  I mean they get some pretty cool powers.  I thought when I was a kid these powers would be cool to have. The powers the ghosts are shown to possess are:

·        Invisibility to most living things.  Only people who are “strange and unusual can see them.” And I have always suspected dogs can see them too.  Although there is nothing in movie to confirm this as the only dog we see is the one that causes the death of the Maitlands. 

·        Shape changing.  Ghosts in this film have the ability to alter their appearance, by reforming their ghost forms.  They can even remove parts from their main form and still function.  They also don’t need their eyes to see as Adam’s headless ghost body was able to run up the stairs and lock the door without his head.

·        Telekinesis: they can control and move things just with their mind.  From small objects to adult humans. 

·        Possession: Ghosts in this movie can take control of human bodies against their will, making them say and do things that they don’t want to do.  They are also able to do this to multiple people at the same time.

 

Now the viewer never sees either of the Maitlands learn how to use their powers or even how they discovered them.  I have always just assumed the handbook contained instructions and they just followed it.  I find it interesting that one ability they don’t seem to have is the ability to pass through solid objects like most ghosts in fiction.  It is clear despite learning how to use their powers they are still bad at being ghosts.  What I don’t understand is why didn’t Adam and Barabra just start throwing things around the room and at the Deetzes.  That would convince them they are haunted.  These aren’t Patrick Swayze-type ghosts, they have no problem picking things up just like they did when they were alive.  Better than when they were alive actually, as they can now movie things with the power their mind.

Then there is Beetlejuice himself.  The Ghost with the Most whose powers seems to be far greater than is fellow ghosts.  What is not clear is why.  Is it because Beetlejuice is just special and that makes him more powerful.  Did he discover some unknown source of power?  Is he just really skilled with his ghost abilities because he uses them so often?  Could Adam and Barabra become like him one day if they practice more?

The only one or more like him?

Among Beetlejuice’s enhanced abilities are:

·        Can make himself visible to living people when he desires to be seen.

·        Enhanced shape changing: Beetlejuice can alter his form at will.  Unlike Adam and Barabra who have to physically move to alter their ghost forms, Beetlejuice has no real limit. He can also change his outfit to be whatever he wants.  That might not be a big deal with his shapeshifting powers, but he can also do it with other people’s clothes as well.

·         He can alter physical reality by remaking structures as he likes them to be. He can teleport himself and others as he desires.  He can alter other ghosts’ forms against their will as he did with both Maitlands in the final battle. He can alter his voice to mimic anyone else’s. 

·        Possession: He can possess both the dead and the living.

The Ghost with the most

Beetlejuice’s only limit seems to be that at one point some power banished him and severely limited his ability to interact with both the living world and the netherworld.  Imposing the weakness of being summoned or banished with the trice calling of his name.

See no hands!  Beetlejuice changing at will. 

In the film we see that most dead people’s ghost forms seem to be based on how they died.  As a kid I always wondered why the Maitlands weren’t always wet considering that they drowned.  I thought maybe drowning was the best way to go because you didn’t have to look weird in the afterlife. The real-world explanation was they were supposed to, but the actors found it impossible to work while in soaking wet clothes all the time. However, I think I have a better explanation.  We know that ghosts can alter their forms if they so desire.  The ghost’s appearance is a result of their self-image and mental state.  Every ghost the Maitlands meet, save Beetlejuice, is still haunted by their deaths.  They haven’t gotten over it yet, so their ghost forms project the tragedy.  The Maitlands died together and have had each other to help themselves through it.  So, in the end of the day they don’t care how they died, what is important is that they did die and are now ghosts.  They aren’t focused on the crash, so their ghost forms don’t show it.  Beetlejuice sees himself as a poltergeist, so his form is that of a rotting corpse. 

Go to bed with a cigarette and you never forget that mistake the ended your life.

Why is Handbook for the Recently Deceased such a boring and terrible read?  With all the writers who have died over the years they couldn’t find someone to write a better one?  I am sure there are certainly a number of creative types who have committed suicide over the years. Why can’t that be their civil servant task?

Cousin Jane is extremely annoying. Nothing else to add to that.

Why did the Maitlands hang outside their window when the Deetezs came up to the attic?  If you’re invisible what is the point of hiding?  On that note why did Juno have them take monster forms to scare the Deetezs? The only one who can see them is Lydia.  Was she hoping that Lydia was going to explain to her father and stepmother how horrible and scary they looked?

Exactly how did Barabra tame the sandworm and ride it through the house?  Is that in the handbook?  If so, I wonder how easy it is?  Can anyone do it or does it take talent?  Was she practicing in the non-screen time? 

Beetlejuice returning to the Netherworld reminded me of Saddam Hussien returning to Hell in South Park.  The head shrinking scene was funny but why would this stop or harm Beetlejuice?  We have already established that he can change his form at will.  If he doesn’t want his head to be small, he can just enlarge it again. 

Either way it was a great movie, and I am excited to see the long-awaited sequel in just a few days.