Character Analysis
Delia's closest friend and interior designer leaves the city to help her turn the new Deetz family home into a postmodern nightmare. He's even more of an art and fashion snob than Lydia. He's also knows his ghosts:
BERNARD: Otho, I didn't realize you were into the supernatural.
OTHO: Well, of course! You remember, after my stint with the Living Theatre. I was one of New York City's leading paranormal researchers. Until the bottom dropped out in '72.
BERYL: Paranormal? Is that what they're calling your kind these days?
Lydia says that Otho can't even change a tire, but, aside from Lydia, Otho's the one who's most in tune with the spirits in the house. He notices Adam and Barbara haunting them out of the corner of his eye. Otho also has the sinister foresight to steal The Handbook for the Recently Deceased when he's up in the attic. He's always working some scheme.
Otho's got a lot of confidence for an interior designer who's attempting a séance. Of course, that confidence is totally misplaced. He reads the wrong incantations, and instead of summoning the Maitlands, he starts an exorcism ritual that ends up making them decompose while they stare helplessly into each other's eyes. Well, eye sockets is more like it.
Otho isn't a total monster, though. He absolutely misjudges his abilities, but he does seem to feel bad about accidentally causing the Maitlands to rot away. Maybe that's why, when he attempts to make a run for it, the only punishment he gets from Betelgeuse is to be stripped down into that horrific blue leisure suit.
For Otho, this fashion disaster is a fate worse than death, but we can't help feeling he does get off a little light for all the trouble he's caused.