A complete lech (Review: 'Beetlejuice')

So, Netflix currently has the 1988 Beetlejuice movie on there and since the sequel is coming out, I decided to give the original a go.

I will be watching the sequel, but not in the cinema. Thoughts below the cut.

• That's a nice bait-and-switch with the title sequence.
• That must be the most evil dog in Connecticut.
• It's rather hard to watch Alec Baldwin in anything these days without thinking of his current legal difficulties and the reason they happened.
• Geena Davis has some truly massive hair in this movie. It is the late 1980s after all. Her career took rather a big downturn after two massive box office failures in the mid-90s and she's never fully recovered from it.
• This is the movie that made Winona Ryder famous. I always find it a strange experience watching an actor I know as an "old person" in a movie early in their career (See here for another example) and here is definitely a case. Ryder plays a Goth with suicidal ideations (even writing a suicide note; you'd do this much differently today) and a general "Whatever!" attitude to things.
• The effects here look very much like effects, which works well for a comedy as it rather reduces the horror of some bits in the movie. Including one literally jaw-dropping scene at the climax.
• Interminable bureaucracy is always good for a laugh.
• Catherine O'Hara is another actor I know as "old" from Schitt's Creek where her character of Moira Rose is completely off-the-wall. Here she's only slightly-off-the-wall.
• The idea of exploiting a haunted house for profit is something that has only gained more currency over time and I would not be surprised if it was a feature in the sequel. I shall watch the trailer after this.
• "Day-O" is a great song to use at inappropriate moments.
• Finally, Betelgeuse itself[1]. A drunken, debauched lech with zero filter. It makes Gene Hunt look like a gentleman. This is something that tries to grope Geena Davis as soon it meets her, can making honking noises with its crotch and gets very close to marrying a barely legal girl. It's memorable, that's for sure.

Conclusion

It's an entertaining movie, more so when Winona Ryder and/or Michael Keaton are on the screen. But not a true classic.

8/10

I see I said the name three times. In that case: Sydney Bristow, Sydney Bristow, Sydney Bristow!

[1]That's how Michael Keaton sees the character and I will go with his pronoun preference.