Beetlejuice Friday, Oct 4 Free! in Bryan Park Dusk
The last film in this summer’s series of free outdoor screenings in Bloomington’s parks, co-presented by the City of Bloomington. Bring a blanket. Bring a snack. Bring the dog.
Beetlejuice is an offbeat, visually imaginative ghost story told from the haunters’ perspective. The happily-married Maitlands (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) drive into a river, come up dead, and return to their beloved, quaint house as spooks only to find that their home has been sold to a hideous New York yuppie family.
The humor unfolds as the horrible Deetzes (Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O’Hara) fill the house with revolting avant-garde art, bulldozers, and camp interior designers spitting venom; while only their 13-year-old goth daughter (Winona Ryder) seems either aware of or in tune with the ghostly couple, whose failure to shine in the scare stakes finally drags them into the arms of the gunslinger-exorcist Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), a kind of OTT demonic Clint Eastwood of the underworld (who rids houses of unwanted humans). Off-the wall humor and some sensational sight gags make the movie a truly astonishing piece of work.
Directed by Tim Burton.
(1988 – PG) Run time 1hr 32 min.
Dusk: 7:40 p.m.