Beetlejuice

The Beetlejuice Movie Poster

"In this house...if you've seen one ghost...you haven't seem them all."  Beetlejuice was a Tim Burton fantasy-comedy released in 1988.  The movie starred Geena Davis as Barbara Maitland, Alec Baldwin as Adam Maitland, Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, and Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice.  The movie was a hit with critics and at the box office, and continues to be a popular movie.  It did well enough to warrant a cartoon that ran until 1991, and a sequel was in the works at the time of this writing. 

In the movie, the Maitlands decide to have a staycation.  While driving back from a trip into town, they end up in a car wreck where they plunge into the river.  When they return home, they realize they have died when they cannot see themselves in the mirror, find they cannot leave their house, and find a book titled Handbook for the Recently Deceased.  Before long, their home is sold, and an obnoxious family, the Deetzes movie in.

The Deetzes remodel the home in modern art fashion, and the Maitlands are at their wits end.  They seek help from their afterlife case worker, who informs them that they will have to stay in the home for 125 years, and if they want the Deetzes to leave, they will have to scare them out.  Their attempts to frighten the new family away fails, so the Maitland's enlist the help of Beetlejuice, a freelance bio-exorcist ghost.  In the end, the Maitlands and the Deetzes agree to live harmoniously, and for his actions, Beetlejuice is given his just desserts.