Classic Tim Burton

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2011)

What does one expect from a Tim Burton movie? Well, I expect the strange, bizarre, and slightly horrific that also pokes fun at society. These concepts made up Edward Scissorhands, and in a way, Mars Attacks. What one does expect is very good filmmaking with well developed characters, which is what we get in Beetlejuice.
I remember when it was first released, the commentators said that the movie was quite difficult to understand and that it was really weird. I agree in part. It is different but I understood what happened in it. The movie begins in an idyllic setting where a loving couple are about to have a holiday when they are killed in a tragic car accident and discover that they are dead and trapped in their old style house. Then some posers from New York move in and they decide to try to get rid of them, but have a hard time doing it.
First they simply try to scare them, but are ignored, and when they get the art of haunting developed, they are ten welcomed by the family who wants to use them as a show piece. All this time, a mischievous demon named Beetlejuice is attempting to get into the ghost's good books so that he might help remove these people.
This movie is quite different from your traditional horror movie, not only do we see the ghost's point of view and feel for them as they love the house as it is being butchered, we also perceive them as being an innocent party. In fact, the movie twists on the traditional haunted house theme where the people living in the house are good and the ghosts are bad. Here we actually become acquainted with the ghosts and perceive things from their point of view. As such we end up sympathising with the ghosts and detesting the humans, but the movie continues to twist for as the ghosts begin to accept these humans, so do we.
This is a very clever film from a masterful filmmaker. I enjoyed it, and see that it seems to try to explore the nature of humanity, and warp our understanding of good and evil. It looks at the human condition, and uses death to show the pointlessness of many conflicts that can occur.