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Artist Beetlejuice

By switching perspectives from the haunted to the haunters, Tim Burton’s 1988 black comedy Beetlejuice turns the ghost story on its head, and nearly matches the delirious invention of his 1985 debut, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. First and foremost, the film is a vehicle for Michael Keaton (who’s never been better) as a slithery spook-for-hire who assists a recently deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) in scaring an unctuous urban family out of their rustic country home. But their efforts backfire when the oblivious tenants, save for the suicidal Winona Ryder, incorporate the unexplained supernatural phenomena into their pretentious, avant-garde design for living.

Updated 09/24/2009