Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

3/30 is the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton’s horror/comedy masterpiece, Beetlejuice.

This fact can’t bode well for any fan of the film, who know the titular character’s obsession with the number three. However, much like it’s wise-cracking protagonist, age as been kind to this bizarre 1987 family-film. The movie’s got everything from slapstick comedy, to jack-in-the-box spooks, to 17-year-old Wynona Rider wearing gothic-black attire and it was an essential starting point for many of Hollywood’s finest working artists today. Revisiting the film, it becomes easy to see why it remains so timeless.

I remember Beetlejuice for a lot of reasons. One being one of the only PG movies to drop the F-bomb. The infamous practical effects that were just as funny as they were scary. And of course, Michael Keaton’s career-redefining performance as a creepy, yet somehow charming, ghoulish con-man. Even though this classic received mixed critical reviews, combined a lot of weird artistic choices and can still put off many who see it today, it has remained a crucial T.V. Halloween tradition and was instrumental in crafting what many now see today as the ‘Burton Aesthetic.

After his huge hit, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Tim Burton found he was the hottest director in Hollywood and was sent all the biggest screenplays, yet none of them caught his appeal. It wasn’t until he read the original R-rated, slasher/horror version of the script from B-Horror icon Michael McDowell that he became interested in making another big-budget movie. This concept of the film would soon be scrapped though. Once two of the biggest producers in Hollywood began to sink their teeth in. This started a notorious ongoing battle over creative control, led by Hollywood fat-cat David Geffen and professional insane-person Jon Peters, who had writer Glenn Shadix rewrite the screenplay to a PG-rated comedy.