One of the most wildly popular and recognized works of cult filmmaker Tim Burton, Beetlejuice perfectly captured his colorfully absurd notion of life, death, and the afterlife. It focused on Barbara and Adam Maitland who, after not surviving a car crash, find themselves stuck haunting their newly acquired country residence. Things get even worse when an Avante garde family from NYC move in to transform it from the inside out. The Maitlands turn to a zany bio-exorcist to try to get them to leave, and that’s when the fun begins.
The film has been praised for its eccentric characters, amusing dialogue, creative set-pieces—especially in the world of the recently deceased—and a truly dynamic performance by Michael Keaton as the Ghost with the Most, Betelgeuse. However, like many films from the 80s, it has aspects of it that haven’t held up in areas like visual effects, storyline concepts, and humor. Below you’ll find 10 things from Beetlejuice that haven’t aged well.
Who Builds Model Towns?
In the creative beginning to the film, a wide shot pans along a series of rolling hills and small clusters of buildings belonging to the quaint town in Connecticut where Beetlejuice takes place, transforming at last into the model that Alec Baldwin’s character (Adam) is finishing.
At the time, model building of that scale was still a recognizable hobby. If it would have had a train, it would have been an even more common pastime. Yet, to anyone young today, you’d probably have to explain why he’s building a miniature model of the town out of real materials rather than rendering it in Minecraft.
The Only Gay Man Is An Interior Decorator
For a long time in Hollywood, the practice of including flamboyant gay characters was kept to a few select roles; best friend of the female protagonist, wedding planner, hairstylist, or interior decorator. Any vocation seen as effeminate was fair game, and Otho being Delia Deetz’s best pal and interior decorator is well-traveled ground.
It seems particularly stereotypical in this case that as an interior decorator, he would espouse the extravagant fashion and flashy personality he does. Today, there are many more roles to represent LGBT people onscreen that also don’t require them to ham it up.
The Humor
The MPAA worked in very mysterious ways in the 80s, when a movie that features a character so insanely vulgar as Betelgeuse can get a PG rating. Betelgeuse, the Ghost with the Most, Mr. “Let’s Turn On The Juice And See What Shakes Loose” managed to drop an F-Bomb and grab his junk when he kicks down Adam’s tree model.
While Betelgeuse is certainly good for laughs, there are moments when his behavior towards Lydia borders on pedophilia. Also, the way suicide is handled in the film for laughs seems painfully crass today. But again, it was the 80s.
Child Bride
One of the most unsettling gags in the entire film occurs near the end where, in order to cross over into the land of the Living, Betelgeuse needs to marry someone that isn’t already dead. He chooses as his mortal bride Lydia Deetz, who isn’t more than thirteen or fourteen.
The scene involving the wedding ceremony with his child bride is disturbing, and, while most of the characters realize this, it’s also played for laughs, which is only something that could have happened in the 80s because modern audiences would find it to unsavory.
There’s No Diversity
Fans of Tim Burton movies have long pointed out the homogeneous nature of his filmography. Every film he does features a predominantly white cast, with barely any ancillary characters of color. Beetlejuice is no exception, with both families being white, the townspeople being white, and only the undead football team portrayed as African-American.
Today, there would be major changes to the ethnicity of one or more cast members. An entire family may have been changed, Barbara and Adam may have been an interracial couple or even a same-sex couple. A lot of the jokes could still be kept, or even improved upon, with more representation.
THE 80S FASHION
There’s no denying that the fashion in Beetlejuice is peak 80s extravagance. From Barbara’s floral house dresses and Jane’s pastels and over-the-shoulder-cardigans to the leather patches on Charles’s jacket and Otho’s bolo tie.
Then there’s Delia Deetz in all her sharp New York City art-deco glory, a cross between a 40s femme fatale and Annie Lennox. Her pale skin, red lip, and dark color palette are reminiscent of a Patrick Nagel painting in a nail salon. Even Lydia with her gloomy gothic aesthetic comes directly from the fashion of the era.
The Stop Motion
Stop-motion is a time-honored tradition in film-making, and Tim Burton has always revered masters of its art form like Roy Harryhausen, who use it to great effect in classic Hollywood films like Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans.
That being said, Burton’s sandworm in this case, which inexplicably appears outside Adam and Barbara’s house, is a little crude for an art form that’s been around for decades, as is the worm that Betelgeuse turns into towards the end of the film.
The Special Effects
The special effects and creature effects in Beetlejuice are some of the most whimsical you’ll see in any film, especially those involving the recently deceased in the waiting room for the undead. They’re utilized very creatively throughout the film, especially where it concerns Barbara and Adam.
When they attempt to frighten the Deetzes away, they go through a series of transformations to their bodies in the hopes of appearing the most grotesque they can. While amusing, the effect is more cartoonish than frightening, which is even pointed out at one point by Lydia.
The Yuppie Excess
While some people watching the film might assume that one subplot involves a wealthy urban family moving to the countryside for some R & R, what they fail to realize is just how much a point is made about the downside of the sort of excess found in the 80s it makes.
In many ways, Barbara and Adam attempting to keep their quaint country house out of the hands of the greedy Delia Deetz and the gaudy opulence that her NYC set represent is an opposition to the specific ideology in the 80s that less isn’t more, more is more.
Betelgeuse’s Politically-Incorrect Hijinks
Michael Keaton steals the movie as the zany bio-exorcist Betelgeuse, but the manic sexual nature of his hijinks area reason why Beetlejuice couldn’t be made today. From the moment he meets Barbara and kisses her on the lips and peeks under her dress to visiting a miniature whorehouse named “Dante’s Inferno Room,” he’s so politically incorrect that it’s astounding he made it into a PG movie.
Keaton shines brightly as this dastardly and crude demon, but many of his jokes don’t land in this era. Yes, he’s supposed to be rude, but what was amusing about his exploitation of women in the 80s isn’t so funny now.
