Release Year: 1988

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

Director: Tim Burton

Writer: Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren

Stars: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton

Death. It's hilarious.

That's Beetlejuice in a nutshell.

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What, you got something against James Madison? Okay, if you insist…

Tim Burton's 1988 dark comedy is about a young couple, Adam and Barbara Maitland, who meet a sudden, tragic end. But, uh, they aren't quite aware at first that they're dead. Kind of like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense…but more adorable. They're faced with a family of pretentious social climbers from New York City who buy their house and start "renovating" the beloved old country home into a postmodern disaster.

When their own first feeble attempts to haunt and scare off the New Yorkers (bedsheets and moaning) fail pathetically—they're new at this death thing, after all—they turn to a perverted, wise-cracking ghost from the Netherworld named Betelgeuse.

That's Beetlejuice to us.

The manic, lecherous Betelgeuse shows up and all hell breaks loose—literally. Of course, it's a funny kind of hell. This is a comedy about a haunted house, after all.

Tim Burton's a guy you might be familiar with from his work on classics like Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Corpse Bride. But back in 1988, Burton only had one other successful movie to his name: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Who knew if he could pull off Beetlejuice, especially when he was describing it as a "burlesque version of The Exorcist" (source)?

Would it just be too creepy for audiences?

Nope.

People loved Beetlejuice. Even though the film was made on a budget of $15 million, it would go on to earn $73 million at the box office. That would make it the 10th highest grossing movie of 1988. It even won an Academy Award. For Best Makeup, but still. How many Oscars do your movies have? We rest our case.

Even the often-cranky critic Pauline Kael wrote in the New Yorker, "With crazy comedy, you settle for the spurts of inspiration, and Beetlejuice has them […] enough […] to make this spotty, dissonant movie a comedy classic" (source). And not much has changed. Today, Beetlejuice is still beloved by film buffs everywhere. Impressive, especially when we're talking about a movie that involves a depressingly bureaucratic afterlife and shrimp cocktails that assault the dinner guests.

So, yeah, life may be short and then you die… but it does feel pretty good to chuckle about it. Let's just hope the hereafter isn't as DMV-awful as Beetlejuice makes it out to be.

And please take a number.

Why should you care? Because today's celebs are yesterday's baristas.

Let us explain. When you watch Beetlejuice today, it looks like it's filled with famous faces. But back in 1988, not all those folks would have been recognizable to audiences. Being associated with the Ghost with the Most raised their profiles. Big time.

Think about it. Before he starred as Betelgeuse, Michael Keaton was best known for playing a stay-a-home dad in Mr. Mom. After Beetlejuice, the next movie he'd headline was Tim Burton's Batman, which would become the top-grossing movie of 1989. If Beetlejuice hadn't catapulted Michael Keaton onto the A-list, there's no way that Tim Burton could have convinced Warner Brothers to hand Keaton the Batsuit.

No matter how cute he looked in it.

We'd also like to point out that if Michael Keaton never starred in Batman, he probably would have never been offered a role in Birdman. The ironic casting just isn't as funny. That means he's never nominated for an Oscar and he dies sad and alone… and we assume has to fill out lots of paperwork before he can meet with his afterlife caseworker.

Okay, that's total speculation.

How about Alec Baldwin? Before Beetlejuice, he'd been appearing in mostly soap operas and TV movies. But two years after he played Adam Maitland, Baldwin was offered a starring role in The Hunt for Red October, which really raised his profile. Of course, it was his forceful "Always Be Closing" monologue in Glengarry Glen Ross that really cemented his status as the most talented Baldwin brother.

Who knows if the world would have been graced with Alec Baldwin's spot-on Donald Trump impression if his down-to-earth role as Adam Maitland didn't come first? Ditto Adam's better half, Geena Davis, a relative unknown before Beetlejuice set her up to become Thelma to Susan Sarandon's Louise, and ace catcher Dottie Hinson in A League of Their Own.

And then there's Winona Ryder. She was virtually anonymous before she burst into the mainstream as Lydia Deetz. Unless you happened to see her in the 1986 movie Lucas.

We didn't think so.

After Beetlejuice, she starred in a string of awesome movies: Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, Mermaids, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Reality Bites, and Little Women. Later, she'd play up the supernatural 80s nostalgia from her Beetlejuice days by starring as the mom in Stranger Things. Of all the celebs touched by Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder probably benefitted the most. No wonder she has a soft spot for Lydia to this day.

It's like each movie creates its own little butterfly effect. Because you liked it, the actors were able to make other movies you liked and so on for infinity. Just think of all the movies we missed out on because Tim Burton never made that Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian sequel.

Then again, maybe some realities are best left on the cutting room floor.