The Big Picture
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
brings back the original cast, introduces Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter, maintaining Tim Burton’s unique and special style.
The original ending for
Beetlejuice
was darker and morbid, which would have contradicted its dark comedic elements.
Beetlejuice
‘s
original script had different plot details and a more sinister Beetlejuice, showing the evolution of the film to achieve success and Burton’s unique touch.
The excitement is palpable for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the long-awaited sequel to 1998’s Beetlejuice, slated for release on September 6, 2024 (and no, saying “Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse” won’t make it hit theaters any sooner). The film introduces Jenna Ortega as Astrid Deetz, Lydia’s daughter, and brings back WinonaRyder and Catherine O’Hara, reprising their roles from the first film. Also reprising his role is none other thanthe titular Beetlejuice himself, Michael Keaton.
As with any film where a sequel is released years after the original, eyes are returning to, or visiting for the very first time, the 1988 classic movie. Beetlejuice is a film that is undeniably Tim Burton, a comedy with gothic and spooky elements, ending on a positive, uplifting note. Yet a proposed alternate ending not only would have changed the outcome, but would have seriously changed the film’s spirit.
Beetlejuice
Release Date March 30, 1988
Director Tim Burton
Runtime 92 minutes
Main Genre Comedy
‘Beetlejuice’ Captures What Makes Tim Burton’s Work Special
Beetlejuice begins in the home of Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin), a lovely New England couple. On their way into town, they are involved in a car accident. After making their way back home, they discover they perished in the accident, and are now ghosts in their own home. Their house is sold to the Deetzes: Charles (Jeffrey Jones), Delia, and their daughter, Lydia, who is able to interact with them. Unable to scare the Deetzes out of the home, the Maitlands turn to “bio-exorcist” Beetlejuice, a ghoulish, crazed, and ill-mannered spirit. Beetlejuice freaks the family out by appearing as a large snake, but Barbara, not wanting to see them harmed, calls Beetlejuice off. After a festive dinner party, Charles and interior decorator Otho (Glenn Shadix) sense a business opportunity to turn the entire town into a paranormal-themed attraction. To make the Maitland’s appear as proof, Otho performs a seance. It works but causes the Maitlands to begin decaying before their eyes. Lydia begs Beetlejuice to help the couple, and he agrees so long as Lydia marries him. She reluctantly accepts, and Beetlejuice saves the Maitlands. As he attempts to hold Lydia to her word, the Maitlands stop Beetlejuice and save Lydia. The film ends with the Maitlands and the Deetzes deciding to co-occupy the home, to Lydia’s delight.
Beetlejuice captures everything that makes Tim Burton’s films so unique and special. Growing up, Burton was a social outsider, favoring the dark and macabre over the conventional sunshine and rainbows, particularly where he grew up in suburban Burbank, California. It’s a juxtaposition that is present in almost all his films, the Gothic outsider hero living in a quiet, “normal” environment. The aesthetic of his films – slightly distorted realities; grand, looming architecture and other set pieces; the surreal and abnormal masquerading as banal normalcy, to name a few examples – are so indicative of the auteur that even the definition of a film as “Burton-esque” is enough to place it in perspective. Most importantly, a Burton film, is always tinged with an awareness that things could get especially dark, even if they never do. No one rides that line better than Burton, letting the dark play in the light, but never completely putting it out.
Related Michael Keaton Wasn’t Tim Burton’s First Choice for Beetlejuice — This Performer Was It’s hard to imagine anyone besides the great Michael Keaton in the titular role, but Burton had his heart set on this unexpected performer.
The Alternate Ending for ‘Beetlejuice’ is Decidedly Not “Burton-esque”
In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, writer Larry Wilson talks about the ending they initially had proposed: “Our first ending was Lydia – she died in a fire and was able to join Barbara and Adam in the afterlife.” It’s a far more morbid ending to the film, certainly miles apart from the toe-tapping, cheerful ending we got. Forget about walking the shoreline – that would have crossed the bridge from ghastly but whimsical to tragic. If the alternate ending had been used, there’s no doubt how severely the film would have been affected. For starters, Lydia’s death in a fire would have directly contradicted the feel of the film to that point. The jarring moment would turn the film from dark comedy to simply dark and lessen the comedic elements throughout the movie.
It would also be safe to assume that the fire Lydia dies in is somehow tied to Beetlejuice, either purposely or inadvertently. Beetlejuice, then, is no longer a boorish but relatively harmless shyster, but a full-blown monster. There’s also the matter of the message conveyed by Lydia’s death, which Wilson alluded to in the interview. The film already has a scene where Lydia decides she wants to kill herself in order to live with Adam and Barbara. Only Barbara stops her and convinces her not to do it. The message here is that suicide isn’t the way to go here, alongside the necessity of the world’s dark oddballs to challenge the status quo. To have her die anyway would have canceled out the impact of Barbara’s appeal to Lydia to keep living.
The Ending Wasn’t the Only Change in ‘Beetlejuice’
Thankfully, the ending of Beetlejuice follows in line with the rest of the film. However, the ending isn’t the only element of the film that changed throughout the development of the film. After buying the movie rights, Warner Bros. didn’t care for the title and wanted it changed to House Ghosts or Scared Sheetless when Tim Burton suggested it as a joke. According to screenwriter Laurence Senelick, the original script was far more sinister. The Maitland’s didn’t pass away from drowning, but suffered a far more horrific death, and Beetlejuice wasn’t the clownish bio-exorcist of the released film, but a homicidal demon (Wilson changed that, likening his Beetlejuice to a “Groucho Marx from hell”). The character of Lydia was originally slated to have a sister, with Lydia being the goth and her sister being the straight one, but she was scrapped so that the script focused more on Lydia.
It’s hard to argue with success, and the version of Beetlejuice we got was indeed very successful. The film made just under $75 million on its release and won the Oscar for Best Makeup at the 61st Academy Awards. We can only speculate, of course, on how differently the film would have been received had even one of the discarded plot details made it into the finished project. Regardless, by keeping the film “Burton-esque”, Beetlejuice is proof that light and dark, life and death, can co-exist, a message sent in a vehicle embraced by goths and norms alike. Given what we know about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, there’s hope that it can keep that message alive, making it already a winner in our eyes.
Beetlejuice is available to rent in the U.S. on Apple TV+
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