Can't wait for the return of the Ghost with the Most? Fear not, fright fans — we've got the ultimate recap to tide you over until "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" hits theaters.
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00:00Can't wait for the return of the ghost with The Most?
00:02Fear not, Fright fans, we've got the ultimate recap to tide you over until Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
00:07hits theaters.
00:09Beetlejuice opens as Barbara and Adam Maitland enjoy a quiet life in Winter River, Connecticut.
00:14They're old-fashioned, decent folks prone to spending vacations fixing up their dusty
00:18country home and avoiding their pesky neighbors.
00:20We don't learn much about their personal lives, though it's hinted that Barbara hasn't been
00:24able to bear children, an aspect that plays into her relationship with Lydia Dietz later
00:28in the film.
00:29Barbara, meanwhile, represents the nerdy everyman, and enjoys fidgeting with his massive
00:33Winter River model in the attic, a symbol of his unyielding love for his home and the
00:37surrounding community.
00:38One day, the pair heads to a local store for modeling supplies.
00:41During the return journey, they swerve to avoid hitting a dog, drive off a bridge, and
00:45drown in the river below.
00:52Hours later, however, they return home, aware of the accident but unaware of their current
00:56condition.
00:57Charles eventually deduces that they perished in the accident and are now ghosts.
01:01Adam initially balks at the idea and tries to retrace their steps, only to find himself
01:05transported to a strange desert which is home to a giant, striped sandworm.
01:09They manage to escape but quickly realize they are trapped in their home, a problem
01:13that intensifies when the new owners move in.
01:16Meet the Dietzes.
01:17Charles, a real estate agent seeking reprieve from his bustling lifestyle, his overbearing
01:21second wife Delia, whose taste in art is almost as bad as her parenting skills, and their
01:26ghoulish teenage daughter Lydia, a young girl fixated on all things morbid.
01:30As soon as we get settled, we'll build you a dark room in the basement, okay?
01:35My whole life is a dark room.
01:37Problems soon arise when Delia and her interior designer, Otho, begin remodeling the Maitland's
01:42home, drawing the ire of the previous owners and forcing them to use their ghostly powers
01:46to drive the Dietzes away.
01:48Oddly, Lydia is the only one in her family with the power to see the Maitlands, which
01:52leads them to form an unlikely friendship.
01:54She's transfixed by their situation and agrees to help them drive her parents away.
01:58Unfortunately, Charles and Delia are intrigued by the spirits, particularly after a Supernatural
02:03episode involving the song, Banana Boat, Deo, and view them as a lucrative financial opportunity.
02:08Yeah, this could all work out.
02:11Home.
02:13Charles reverts to his real estate ways and envisions turning his home into an attraction
02:17substantial enough to attract outside businesses, while Delia hopes the media attention will
02:21bring mainstream attention to her art.
02:23The feud drives Lydia further away from her parents, and she soon longs to join the Maitlands
02:27on the other side.
02:29When they fail to drive the Dietzes away from their home, Adam and Barbara look elsewhere
02:33for guidance.
02:34Utilizing their spiritual manual, The Handbook for the Recently Deceased, Adam creates a
02:38mystical passage to the Land of the Dead, otherwise known as the Neitherworld.
02:42This version of the afterlife is a peculiar arena overfilled with kooky, dead characters
02:46who met gruesome fates working in cramped office spaces or loitering in dimly lit waiting
02:51rooms.
02:52While it's dangerous, it seems, death is merely an extension of the misery people endured
02:55in life.
02:56Take the short-tempered clerk with a Miss Argentina banner around her neck, for example.
03:00Her pale blue skin suggests she took her own life after not winning the crown, and must
03:04now work as a bureaucrat until the powers that be set her free.
03:07The Maitlands soon learn that, for some reason or another, they will be forced to remain
03:11in their home for 125 years.
03:13Realizing the severity of their predicament, Adam and Barbara call on a nearby demon for
03:17support.
03:19It's not until 50 minutes into Beetlejuice that we finally meet the ghost with the most.
03:23To be fair, Burton sprinkles moments of Keaton's crazy ghoul throughout the opening act, notably
03:27in a hilariously low-budget cowboy commercial, and a strange sequence that pays tribute to
03:311958's The Fly.
03:33These moments are enough to inspire a little apprehension about Beetlejuice, a feeling
03:37multiplied several times over when their caseworker, Juno, explains his backstory.
03:41He went out on his own as a freelance bio-exorcist, claimed he could get rid of the living."
03:49Juno reveals that Beetlejuice currently resides in Adam's model town, waiting for someone
03:53desperate enough to say his name three times.
03:56As it turns out, the Maitlands decide to take the risk, except instead of a dangerous, demonic
04:00monster, they unearth a perverted, wisecracking clown.
04:03I've seen the exorcist about 167 times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time
04:09I see it!"
04:10Thankfully, they don't actually unleash him on the mortal world.
04:13That requires saying his name three more times.
04:15Instead, the Maitlands decide to take on the Dietzes themselves.
04:18Nevertheless, Beetlejuice manages to disguise himself as a giant snake and nearly kills
04:23Lydia's family before Barbara sends him back to the model.
04:26Following their meeting with Juno, the Maitlands use their supernatural power to contort their
04:30faces in a last-ditch effort to scare away the Dietzes.
04:33En route to the big scare, however, they have a change of heart and decide to share their
04:37home with the new couple.
04:38This decision is enough to pull a depressed and lonely Lydia back from the brink of taking
04:42her own life.
04:43Moments earlier, she had nearly made a deal with Beetlejuice.
04:45In exchange for setting him free, he would take her to the Neitherworld to find the Maitlands.
04:50But as she learns from Barbara,
04:51"...being dead really doesn't make things any easier."
04:55Around this time, Otho discovers Adam's handbook and uses it to perform a seance to impress
04:59the Dietzes and their high-profile, financially loaded guests.
05:02Adam and Barbara suddenly vanish from the attic, reappear in the middle of the ritual,
05:06and unexpectedly begin to rapidly decay.
05:08As Lydia watches in horror, Otho struggles to find a solution.
05:12"...Can you stop this?"
05:13"...Otho?"
05:14"...It's too late, Charles.
05:15I'm sorry."
05:16Panicked, Lydia turns to the one person who can save her friends.
05:23With time running out, Lydia rushes to Adam's model and finds Beetlejuice perched atop a
05:27tombstone.
05:28He agrees to help the Maitlands in return for Lydia's hand in marriage.
05:31A deal is struck, Lydia says the three magic words, and Beetlejuice unleashes supernatural
05:36He hurls the Dietzes' big-city pals through the ceiling, stops the Maitlands' exorcism,
05:40and defrocks Otho before turning his attention to Lydia.
05:43A reverend from the Neitherworld arrives, a red dress magically appears on Lydia, and
05:47the wedding commences.
05:48"...I'm Lydia Dietz and I'm of sound mind.
05:49The man next to me is the one I want.
05:50You ask me, I'm answering.
05:51Yes, I love that man of mine."
05:52Rejuvenated, Barbara and Adam try to intervene, apparently needing only to say Beetlejuice's
06:00name three additional times to banish him back to his prison.
06:04Beetlejuice uses a plethora of tricks to prevent them from speaking, and eventually
06:07transports them to separate locations.
06:09Adam winds up miniaturized in the town model, while Barbara finds herself staring down a
06:13sandworm.
06:14Thinking quickly, Adam drives a model truck into Beetlejuice's foot, distracting him long
06:18enough for a sandworm to smash through the roof and devour him.
06:21An epilogue sees the Dietzes and the still-deceased Maitlands living harmoniously while Beetlejuice
06:26returns to the Neitherworld waiting room.
06:28There, a voodoo magician shrinks Beetlejuice's head, and all's right with both worlds.
06:34Warner Bros. earned $74.7 million at the worldwide box office in 1988 against a $15 million budget,
06:40meaning it was a big enough hit to prompt The Geffen Company and Warner Bros. to pursue
06:43ideas for a sequel.
06:45Following his work on Batman, Tim Burton ordered a script titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian,
06:49which would have seen the bio-exorcist follow the Dietz clan to Hawaii, where he awakens
06:53an evil spirit and participates in a surfing contest.
06:56Burton was fascinated at the prospect of combining his dark style with a cheesy 1960s beach movie
07:00aesthetic.
07:01Unfortunately, Warner Bros. passed over Beetlejuice 2 in favor of Batman Returns, but that didn't
07:06stop Burton from further developing his wacky concept.
07:09Throughout the 1990s, he commissioned several writers, including Kevin Smith, to rewrite
07:13the script for Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.
07:15Sadly, the project never gained much momentum.
07:18For better or worse, Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian never saw the light of day, although it at
07:22least paved the way for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice nearly 40 years later.
07:26While the big-screen Beetlejuice sequel languished in development hell, Burton teamed with Warner
07:30Bros. Television to create an animated series loosely based on the original film.
07:34Featuring the voices of Stephen Wemet, Alison Court, Elizabeth Hanna, and Roger Dunn, Beetlejuice
07:39ran on ABC and Fox from 1989 to 1991 and reimagined the film's concept into a kid-friendly adventure.
07:46In this iteration, Lydia and Beetlejuice are pals who spend their days exploring the Neitherworld,
07:50where they run into all sorts of outlandish ghosts and goblins.
07:53Beetlejuice!
07:54Beetlejuice!
07:55Beetlejuice!
07:57The cartoon certainly looks and sounds like Beetlejuice, especially with Danny Elfman's
08:01bouncy title theme, but so many elements are changed from the film that fans view it as
08:05more of an alternate take on the movie than an actual sequel.
08:08Curiously, though, the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice trailers show Lydia teaming up with our favorite
08:12demon and traveling to the Neitherworld.
08:14Is this Burton's way of tying the animated series into the cinematic world?
08:18The juice is loose.
08:20Judging by the trailers, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice picks up years after the original and once
08:24again revolves around the Dietz family's struggles with the pesky poltergeist.
08:27Charles, it seems, has passed away, leaving his wife, daughter, and granddaughter in mourning.
08:32Franchise newcomer Astrid soon finds herself stuck in the Neitherworld, prompting Lydia
08:36to call on Beetlejuice for help.
08:38We also see glimpses of a vengeful spirit named Dolores, who may or may not be the owner
08:42of that finger Beetlejuice pulled from his pocket during the wedding scene in the first
08:45film.
08:46Meanwhile, Willem Dafoe plays an afterlife detective who used to be a B-movie actor in
08:50the real world.
08:51Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also features several nods to the original movie.
08:54Notably, for example, a load of shrunken heads, a result of magic employed by Harry the Hunter
08:59in the final scene of the first film.
09:01You'll also spot sandworms galore, a dance sequence, and more.
09:04Can Beetlejuice Beetlejuice capture the silly charm of the 1988 classic and stand comfortably
09:09alongside Burton's best works?
09:11We're not sure, but so long as Burton delivers a decent follow-up that caters to franchise
09:15fans, everyone will hopefully go home singing,