"I'm afraid Robert Goulet hasn't arrived yet Sir"

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2020)

I've discovered that it's a risky proposition to go back and rewatch the films you liked as a kid through adult eyes. Plot holes seem more apparent, your sense of humour may have evolved, your life experience can change your outlook. So I was very happy to rewatch "Beetlejuice" and find myself not only finding new things about the film I hadn't noticed before - but that so much of the film, from a visual effects standpoint if nothing else, still holds up.
Young married couple Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland(Geena Davies) are tragically drowned on their way back to their Idyllic small town house. Returning as ghosts, they're horrified when a new family, The Deetz buy their house and move in. New York developer Charles (Jeffrey Jones) and his wife Delia (Catherine O Hara) arrive and she has big interior design plans for the house. Desperate, the Maitlands call on the help of bioexorcist Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) to scare the living away, but they soon discover that the solution is much worse than the problem.
I mention the visual effects in the opening because they're one of the most striking aspects of the film, rewatching it today. Mostly practical or stop-motion, they haven't aged like some computer visual effects of the time (or even later) have and they're so unusual, so directly from their director's twisted mind, that they remain memorable. It's not all the film has going for it though, the script is funny and the performances are very strong too. Alec Baldwin looks impossibly young, Catherine O' Hara is a comic genius and Winona Ryder's Lydia is the prototype movie Goth girl. Michael Keaton is great too, apparently adlibbing for his life whenever his character gets a chance on screen. Some other reviews have suggested Betelgeuse's limited screen time as a bad thing, I think that's one of the films strengths. Fun as though he is, he would become a bit much if he was on screen longer.
Funny, scary and brilliant "Beetlejuice" is a classic. (Maybe don't let your younger kids watch it though.)