Films › Tim Burton

Beetlejuice (1988)

Film

DirectorTim Burton

Meta takes3

Figures

Locations

The Netherworld waiting room and its rigid rules

Form & technique

The "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" dinner party scene → The Pastiche Playbook
Lydia Deetz's goth aesthetic and morbid identity
The use of Harry Belafonte's Calypso music during supernatural events

Tropes

Beetlejuice's bodily transformations and vulgarity → Grotesque Realism
The Deetz family's redecoration of the Maitlands' home
The Maitlands' experience of being trapped in their own home as ghosts → The Uncanny
Delia Deetz's postmodern sculptures

Films most connected to Beetlejuice

Brazil (1985) — via The Pastiche Playbook, Grotesque Realism
Shrek (2001) — via The Pastiche Playbook, Grotesque Realism
Barton Fink (1991) — via The Pastiche Playbook, The Uncanny
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) — via The Pastiche Playbook, The Uncanny
Gremlins (1984) — via The Pastiche Playbook, The Uncanny
Sorry to Bother You (2018) — via Grotesque Realism
Cape Fear (1991) — via Grotesque Realism
Caddyshack (1980) — via Grotesque Realism