A comedy classic for the modern ages.

Rating: 6/10 (7 September 2013)

When a pale faced, mop-haired creature from beyond comes along to teach some recent dead about how to deal with the living while still roaming the planet as ghosts, trouble is about to brew. In the hands of novice director Tim Burton, one of the great comedy masterpieces came along to inspire others, yet has never been surpassed. Rising stars Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis portray the happily wed couple, having just moved into their new suburban home, yet killed in a freak accident. They are warned by their adviser Sylvia Sidney (think welfare worker for the dead) to totally ignore "Beetlejuice" and certainly never say his name three times, much like human beings were warned not to feed gremlin Gizmo after midnight.
Why are the unusually quiet Baldwin and Davis so desperate to scare the new residents (Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O'Hara, along with Gothic daughter Winona Ryder) out of their house? That's because they are ghosts, and that is what ghosts do. The veteran 30's leading lady Sidney, smoking with the exhaust coming out of an obvious slit throat (which made me think that this was her aunt scared to death by the raven in "Damien: The Omen II"), delivers her lines with that raspy crankiness of an aging New York Executive Secretary and is hysterically funny. Michael Keaton too takes on this role with a great challenge, devouring it like the zag-nut bar he offered to the title character's desired fly lunch.
As the WASPY artist family who has taken over the home, Jones and O'Hara are the perfect befuddled couple who obviously can't stand each other, with Ryder perfectly droll as Jones' daughter from an earlier marriage. The comic gags come fast and furious, first with O'Hara suddenly breaking into "Day-O" as the ghosts of Baldwin and Davis take over her and the guests, then when "Beetlejuice" shows them how to do it at a second dinner party where the frights are heightened.
The potential genius for Tim Burton had already been seen in the sleeper hit "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and has continued on to this day. This is a director who obviously will one day be in the ranks of Hitchcock, Fellini, Vincent Minnelli and John Ford (among others) where just the mention of their name brings up visuals of great art within the world cinema. The only thing I can say about this movie is that unlike other Tim Burton movies, it hasn't aged as well, and often seems like a surrealistic experience which at times just became a bit perplexing to get through.