I had the chance to watch this wonderful farce of an
undead movie the other night. It actually was played
on October 31st but was rather late in the evening…or
early in the morning depending on your point of view!
Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin and Winona
Ryder make a very fluid cast working together to make
the movie funny is not totally unbelievable. The foils
include Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O'Hara as Ryder’s
parents in the film. The family has recently moved
from the city-NYC of course-to the rural countryside
of Connecticut. I think my parents took a page from
this movie after they retired and moved out of the
city! Baldwin and Davis are married with a hardware
store in town and are on a two week vacation-spending
it at home alone. Early in the film they suffer from a
car accident. A dog walks in front of their car and
they drive off a bridge. I think the dog needed to
learn how to move faster in my opinion, but as a
result of the dog’s life being spared the car slides
off the bridge and the Maitlins die-presumably a
horrible death drowning in the creek.
The movie’s odd events continue from there. We’re
introduced to “Life for the recently deceased” through
the eyes of Davis and Baldwin who are not the sharpest
tools in the hardware store. They don’t understand
they’re dead and when they do they seem to think that
modern day living rules apply to them. They soon
enlist Michael Keaton’s help. He’s the headliner of
the movie here! He’s Beetlejuice and he wastes no time
in causing a few problems for the Dietz’s-Jones,
O’Hara and Ryder. He starts by impersonating a snake
and snaps, bites and drops each of them in some way.
Next he’s causing problems for Davis and Baldwin as
well because he won’t leave Ryder alone and has his
eyes and hands on every woman in the film-whether
they’re available or not! Who thought that being dead
could be such a hassle?
The story moves along quite quickly and does seem to
follow its own rules very well-even if you’re not sure
where those rules are going to lead you or anyone else
who’s watching! If you enjoy odd films, don’t mind
some weak characters-Baldwin’s portrayal is not the
strongest-and are looking for a Halloween movie that
is not a stereotypical Hollywood blood and guts,
screaming slasher movie, then this may be for you. It
has spooky parts, several laughs and even has a pseudo
happy ending.
Beetle Juice (1988)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094721/
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
