I also watched Beetlejuice on the plane and of course I love this movie because I was a weird kid in the 90s and I'm not made of stone
and I am not here to say Beetlejuice is Bad Actually, it's fun and funny and stylish and Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder are iconic and there are tons of goofy practical monster effects and stop-motion and Danny Elfman (good era). the plot is honestly not a load-bearing member here.
but the plot is very weird if you step back
the Maitlands' motivation is to... preserve the cottagecore aesthetic of their house forever??? sure the Deetzes are annoying and have bad taste, but they didn't force the Maitlands out, and they don't know the Maitlands' souls are still there. they bought an unoccupied house after a freak accident that was nobody's fault. and now their villainous plan is to redecorate the home with [scare chord] postmodern art.
the iconography here is that the Deetzes are snobs and the Maitlands are humble folk, but of the two couples, which one is willing to terrorize people over their aesthetic choices?
I feel like there's a very obvious message you could have here about Letting Go, like once the Maitlands finally accept that the house isn't theirs anymore and the things in it are just things, that's when they stop being imprisoned inside the house and can move on to the Great Beyond
but no, instead their happy ending is that they get to enjoy tasteful floral wallpaper for eternity
HOLY SHIT THAT'S WHAT ALEC BALDWIN USED TO LOOK LIKE?!?!?
