Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Beetlejuice

 

Beetlejuice is a 1988 comedy/horror movie directed by Tim Burton, starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Catherine O'Hara, and Jeffrey Jones. The movie's premise is that a family (Ryder, O'Hara, and Jones) moves into the home of a recently deceased couple, Adam and Barbara Maitland (Davis and Baldwin). Unbeknownst to them, the Maitland's spirits are still in the house and cannot leave. The Maitlands hire a "bio-exorcist" named Beetlejuice (Keaton) to scare the new homeowners away only to regret the decision as they befriend Ryder's character, Lydia (who is the only one who can see them).

The blu-ray set is very bare bones. It just contains the movies without any extras aside from a couple of cartoons and the theatrical trailers. Hopefully, since a sequel is set to be released in September of 2024, this will get a 4k release and have some bonus features included. Given that everyone involved in the movie is still alive it should not have been that hard to get at least some of them together to give some substance to the extras. The A/V transfer of the blu-ray is okay but could be better. Given the lack of bonus content, if you own the DVD, I would wait to upgrade until a 4k version is released (as it most assuredly will be). 

Ultimately, the movie is very good. The movie was made at what was arguably the height of Michael Keaton's acting career. During the same time frame, he did Clean and Sober, Beetlejuice, and the first two Batman movies. It is not really a scary horror movie. It is best described as a comedy with some jump-scare moments. Keaton is not in the movie as much as I remember when I saw it in the theater years ago, but he steals every scene he is in. Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin do a great job in their roles as the dead couple trying to spook the buyers out of their house, and Winona Ryder is very good as the awkward teen who can see the ghosts. It very much has the look and feel of Tim Burton's other movies. It was made before the modern-day special effects era, so some of the effects are cheesy and fake-looking, but they do not distract from or reduce the quality of the movie. It is absolutely worth the time to watch.