Burton's funny horror is also deliciously dark

Rating: 9/10 (7 October 2008)

After they die, Adam (Baldwin) and Barbara (Davis) come back to their house as ghosts and find a family is moving in and the couple try to scare them away with help from bio-exorcist Beetlejuice.
Tim Burton's reputation as the darkest and most Gothic director started here with a bizarre but wonderfully different tale of the dead and is both funny, and yet psychological scary, and brings a niche to the market in a strange and sophisticated way.
The film has a terrific opening with Danny Elfman's score exquisite to the bird's eye view of the town going past and the upbeat music plays right into our hands and will gear you up ready for the horror and excitement to begin.
Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October) impresses as ambitious Adam and has good on screen chemistry with Geena Davis (Thelma and Louise) and the pair create many laughs and are a joy to watch, especially when playing around with the sheets.
Winona Ryder (Girl, interrupted) gives a great performance as Lydia, the weird and wonderful teenager, who gives the film a more serious and realistic feel against Keaton's comic Beetlejuice.
The star of the show is Keaton (Batman) who plays bio-exorcist Beetlejuice, a crazed man who is evil, eccentric and enjoyable to watch, because he is weird and different, one of Tim Burton's finest creations, right up there with Edward Scissorhands. Beetlejuice is just so weird that he is almost lovable. What makes these characters work is the writing.
The plot is very consistent, if seeming a bit weird and far fetched to begin, with plenty of dark humour and amazing characters. There is plenty of physical comedy and some slapstick which spreads the humour through different characters. The dialogue is pitched well, also giving some cheesy but really likable puns on the dead.
The ideology of ghosts is covered well, playing on human interpretations and putting twists and turns on this idea, and making it funny through a book for the dead.
The settings make this different to, with a different look upon heaven and hell, and the model of the town plays a great small yet significant setting. The colour and lighting hep achieve the dark and sinister feel of the narrative, as does the Oscar winning make up.
Tim Burton has created some wonderful films in his directing career, and whereas this film isn't as powerful as Sweeney Todd or Edward Scissorhands, it is easily the funniest and a joy to watch