36 Days of Halloween - 1988: Beetlejuice

In typical Tim Burton fashion, a couple dies in a completely contrived and ridiculous fashion, only to find themselves haunting their former house. When a horrible family moves in and starts to change everything, they try, without success, to scare them away. Failing that, they call on gross, homeless, pervy Michael Keaton to help them out. He does actually help them out as they requested, so they renege on their promise to him, and ev...eryone but him lives happily ever after. Beetlejuice is *weird*. Really really weird. How did this movie get turned into a children's cartoon? How did Beetlejuice go from being the creepy undead pervert trying to hook up with ~16 year old girl, to being her best friend in the animated version? So, as weird as this movie is, it's also really funny. It's mostly an excuse to use a bunch of weird special effects and show of Tim Burton's visual aesthetic. The various ghosts and ghouls that make appearances, and the wacky attempts to scare away the Deetz family show off some pretty neat special effects (I particularly like when Adam and Barbara show their case worker how they'll be trying to scare the Deetzs; the eyeballs on the fingertips get me every time!). The best scenes are obviously the musical numbers, but the whole thing is ridiculous fun, and seeing Michael Keaton hamming it up as the disgusting "ghost with the most" makes this worth rewatching. 2.5 out of 3 Beetlejuices said out loud.