#topfivehorror #horrorcomedy - today we have my first #TimBurton entry to a top five with #Bettlejuice. Whilst in my last post, I declared Robert Zemeckis was one of my favourite Directors, Tim Burton (for me) has to no.1 on the list. Dark, gothic, fantastical, heart-warming, sinister, suspenseful, Burton ticks every box for me. As many will know from my visit to the Royal Albert Hall last Monday, I had the joy to witness Danny Elfmans scores to some of Burtons films performed live - Burton & Elfman simply go hand-in-hand and its a marriage made in the stars! Bettlejuice is a classic demonstration of Burton bringing together dark material, but somehow making them personable & heartfelt. The situation of a happily married couple (unknowingly) dying in a car accident, only to gradually realise they are ghosts & have their home taken over by a mixed-bag of new family members. The theme of death runs throughout the film, more so when Barbara (Geena Davis) & Adam (Alex Baldwin) meet their Caseworker Juno , who takes them to her office on the spiritual end of the spectrum to discuss their case of scarring the new inhabitants from their house. Here we see Burton in full-flow of his imagination - Juno is a smoker - we learn she died by having her throat cut as smoke escapes the gash in her neck; we see a paper-pusher of the office who has been run over & is flat as a pancake moving along a wire; a magicians assistant cut in-half; a man smoking who is burnt to a crisp & the famous pea-head hunter. Burton has a flare for creating wild, eccentric & very memorable characters - enter Bettlejuice himself, played by Michael Keaton. You know things arent good from the get-go when we see a fly landing on Adams model toy village, where Bettlejuice resides - here, he lures the fly to his gravestone with a candy bar, only to pull it into the fake turf & consume it, finished with a large belch - Bettlejuice is crude, rude & not someone to be associated with - as everyone in the film soon discovers. Near the climax of the film, we see Bettlejuice in full force in terms of his malevolent behaviour & manner - the transformation into a snake certainly gave me the shivers! Like Zemeckis, Burton has an eye for assembling the right cast for the right roles, which he does to perfection in Beetlejuice and went on to work with many of the cast in later films. Yet again, this is a horror comedy I could watch again & again & never tire of it! Pure horror comedy gold! Horror Laughs 10/10
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 13:53:17 +0000
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