Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "Beetlejuice" (1988). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*

 

There is undoubtedly a 1980s cult movie charm to Tim Burton's 1988 "Beetlejuice", with the screenplay written by the late horror novelist Michael McDowell.   And Burton's 2nd movie after "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" (1987), to which gave Burton the bankable status as an up and coming Hollywood director, and yet that 80s charm, also decries, that 38 years later, "Beetlejuice" 'hasn't aged too well' ethos to the overall production, despite the 1950s aesthetical rework and 80s mid teen Gen X irony, Burton's direction within the comedic, gothic and endearing aspect of the film, ensures that the production, like its story of ghostly spectras should remain settled, not relestless, and stays trapped in its locked year of 1988. 

The original story for "Beetlejuice" was a co-written debut, with Michael McDowell's business partner Larry Wilson, under their production company "Pecos Productions" in 1985, as McDowell was already a known horror writer, the collaboration on Beetlejuice was their first full length screenplay, to which they originally pitched to Universal Studios, and was promptly rejected, possible due to its darker tone, and more graphic stylisations of the original screenplay, which was far removed from Tim Burton's tongue and cheek, horror story about ghosts and hauntings.   After being rejected by Universal, the first draft was eventually bought by the now defunct Geffen Film Company, and screenwriter Warren Skaaren began reworking the script to fit the Tim Burton quirkiness, and tone down a lot of the "Betelgeuse" (Beetlejuice) murderous behaviour, played by the incredibly talented actor Michael Keaton, who is essentially unrecognizable as the Beetlejuice character.  Better still, is the originality of the character as a "Freelance bio-Exorcist", in his mishmash of identities from what could be from multiple timelines of being a ghost.

To which the story centres around the sweet, and recently deceased couple called the "Maitland's", with Geena Davis playing "Barbara" and Alec Baldwin as "Adam" her husband, after a car accident, which they ended up both drowning in the local river, which according to the original script was more graphic and disturbing, thus they become ghosts caught in a form of purgatory within their own house, and as irony has it, were pressured, when they were living, to be sold by the local real estate agent, once they do pass into the ghostly realm, it is sold by the said real estate agent to an odd, and obnoxious yuppie 1980s couple, Wall Street investment banker "Charles Deetz", played by Jeffrey Jones, who is looking for a quiet retreat away from the hecticness of New york City, which he finds in the Maitland's quaint 'Victorian Gothic', house in the fictional town Winter River, Connecticut, with his neurotic 2nd wife artist, "Delia Deetz", played by the late Catherine Anne O'Hara and the wayward Gen X daughter, who is all goth and cynical (but can see and identify with the ghostly Maitland's), "Lydia Deetz"  (Winona Ryder).  As Delia goes to work in attempting to transform the Maitland's home into a postmodern style fit out, the newly deceased try their luck and haunting the Deetz so they leave, and fail miserably.  In steps Michael Keaton's "Betelgeuse", who goes a little too far in pushing the Deetz's out of the Maitland's house, while trying to forcefully marry their daughter Lydia.

As mentioned, "Beetlejuice" didn't age too well, but, that's its charm.  While kinda struck in movie purgatory of that late 1980s sweet spot, before the 1990s dumped three years of our beloved counterculture creativity into the trash, the cult appeal of "Beetlejuice" is clearly there, and for a 'short' movie that runs just 92 minutes, it does deserve a drinking/thinking session afterwards, where you can decide if the "Maitland's" were already dead, stuck in a "Adam's" miniature, fictional town, and the dog, at the start of the move, which steps off the plank of wood (balancing their doomed car, and the Maitland's in it), allowing the Maitland's (and car) to plunge into the creek, was actually a manifestation version of Beetlejuice.  And being the ultimate prankster, and mischievous spirit, haunts both the living and dead,  while blurring reality and unreality, and so on.  

Thus, we can extend the 92 minutes of the 1988 release to a discussion of 2 hours, without viewing the 2024 sequel.

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(A.Glass 2026)