'Let's turn on the juice and see what shakes loose!'

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2020)

Just an absolute comedy-horror classic and there's not been anything to replicate it since. Happily married couple Adam and Barbara (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) live in a perfect house in a quiet town (apart from some nosey neighbours!) Very early on in the film, they die from a car accident and find themselves as ghosts in limbo. When they get a new family move into their abode, they hire a troublesome spirit named Betelgeuse, the afterlife's leading bio-exorcist, to come and get rid of them. If you haven't seen it, it's an essential! The cast are perfect; Michael Keaton just steals the show in his transformative performance as Beetlejuice and is such an iconic mischievous character. Winona Ryder is fantastic as Lydia; a gothic teenager who has more interest in the dead than the living. Everybody from Davis and Baldwin to Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones are all brilliant and the film has a unique tone all on its own which is beautiful to behold! Fantastically written by Warren Skaaren (Batman, Beverly Hills Cop) and Michael McDowell (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Thinner) it's consistently funny and nuanced with care and affection for the characters. Danny Elfman's score is stunning, creating one of the most memorable title sequences of all time! It's one that I can't sing it's praises enough and is one of Burton's masterpieces