Turn on the juice, and see what shakes loose.....

Rating: 6/10 (6 February 2013)

Adam and Barbara live in a beautiful house in New England. While driving home they are involved in a terrible auto accident.
They manage to walk home only to discover that they have died and now haunt their house. When their house is purchased by an out of state family, they feel their home is threatened by the over-the-top artists wife and real-estate idea-man husband.
Their only relief is the Gothic daughter of the family. Their attempts at scaring the family out of the house are ignored or laughed at. Finally they fall to the temptation to use the people-exorciser Beetle Juice.
When they find his tactics too dangerous, they attempt to contain him and save the family they were trying to boot.....
The years haven't been kind to this movie. The performances are still good, but while I am probably the biggest fan of the eighties, Jones and clan really epitomise what I hated about that decade, pretentious people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, and this really leaves a bitter taste in my movie mouth.
Other than that, it's Burtons most Burton film, and Keaton, even though he's in it for a little over ten minutes, is a joy to watch.
Effects have aged badly, but things still stand out, like the smoking man, and little old pin head. The sand worm sequences always remind me of dune, and although it's intentional, Baldwin and Davis are just too bland to care for.
I know this film has a cult following, and on occasion, it does hit the right marks, like the score and the whole kooky feel to it, but at the end of the day, it really doesn't deserve it's cult following.