Posted by For a movie about death, Beetlejuice is pretty funny.
I’ve seen this movie so many times and I was even a pretty big fan of the cartoon that came out after its release. I love that it pokes fun at death and has that classic Tim Burton bizarre and slightly outrageous feel to it. In the book Burton on Burton, he admits that he was getting offered really bad scripts until Beetlejuice came along. Burton goes on to say that the script “had no real story” and “didn’t make any sense”, but that it was funny and dark, which was just what he was looking for at the time.
I’ve mentioned my love of Danny Elfman’s music before, and it plays a really important part in Beetlejuice (as does the selection of Harry Belafonte songs). Burton has said that when they did test screenings without the score, audiences didn’t like the movie as much. If you’ve seen it, I’m sure you can understand why. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you do.
Don’t judge it by the cheesy trailer below. It was the 80s, after all.