Beetlejuice

Microcephalics, also known as "pinheads" (offensive) have been featured in movies as early as 1932 (Freaks). An English pop opera filtered through Greek tragedy, the show was such a notorious turkey it provided the title to Ken Mandelbaum's survey of theatrical disasters, Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. In his case, this is accompanied by mental retardation and small stature (4' 3"), though he does not have the disproportionate limb size associated with dwarfism. A 1988 Broadway musical, starring Betty Buckley, Linzi Hateley, and Darlene Love closed after only five performances and 16 previews. He suffers from microcephaly, an abnormally small head and brain. A much-belated and poorly-received sequel appeared in 1999; it featured another girl with telekinetic powers (who is eventually revealed to have shared a father with Carrie), but the overall plot was painfully similar to the first story. A TV movie remake was released in 2002, but the 1976 version is widely regarded as superior in both technique and fidelity to the source material. Beetlejuice is also the name of a recurring guest on the Howard Stern show who has also appeared in several movies and music videos. Amy Irving, William Katt, Betty Buckley, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen and John Travolta are also featured.

Also, in the LucasArts adventure game Grim Fandango, people who commit crimes in life are forced to work off their time at the nightmarishly bureaucratic "Department of Death." All these are examples of Bangsian fantasy. Brian de Palma directed a film version of Carrie in 1976 with Sissy Spacek as Carrie. Another, although not as extreme example is the 2004 TV series Dead Like Me, in which the characters need to work as grim reapers before they can leave limbo. Carrie draws strong parallels between the onset of the title character's adolesence, especially her menstruation and sexuality, and her psychic powers. Beetlejuice seems to be inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist novel Les jeux sont faits (1952), in which death as meaningless bureaucracy is prominently featured. The novel also includes fictional news accounts detailing the town's destruction, the aftermath, "interviews" from survivors and transcripts from court proceedings concerning the investigation. Tim Burton, however is not interested. Carrie later causes her house to implode, resulting in her own death.

A sequel to the movie has been in the works for over fifteen years, without any results, although Michael Keaton has expressed interest in reprising his role. Then, after burning virtually the entire downtown Chamberlin, returns home to confront her mother, killing her by inducing cardiac arrest. Beetlejuice had a cast of wacky neighbors including Jacques, a French skeleton fitness buff; Ginger, a tap-dancing spider; The Monster Across the Street, a boisterous Texas redneck; and a nasty clown named Scuzzo who is his arch-nemesis. After causing a massive fire that destroys Ewin High School and trapping almost everyone inside, Carrie gets revenge on Billy and Chris (who had fled). Many of the jokes revolve around toilet humor and visual puns. Perceiving everyone to be laughing at her (not everyone was), she finally demonstrates the full effect of her telekinetic powers, wreaking her revenge on her terrified classmates. Lydia and Beetlejuice are friends, and she frequently visits him at home in the Netherworld. After drenching Carrie and Tommy in pig's blood, Carrie is finally pushed over the edge.

An animated television series loosely based on the film also called Beetlejuice ran on ABC from September 1989 to December 1991, featuring the voices of Stephen Ouimette, Alyson Court, and Tara Strong. It's a plan that Chris will soon regret. Lydia is the only living character who sees the couple, and is tapped to help them deal with both her obnoxious parents and with the crass and impetuous Beetlejuice. For revenge, she and her boyfriend, Billy, decide to rig the election for prom queen, then hatch a subsequent plan to humiliate her in front of the prom-goers. The world outside is a parched nightmare of sand dunes and a sandworm (Betelgeuse calls this place Saturn). However, Chris Hargenson (the girl who hates Carrie and helped instigate the earlier episode in the showers) is incensed that she is unable to attend prom. Adam and Barbara are trapped in their house. With prom fast approaching, Sue sets Carrie up with her boyfriend, Tommy Ross (the class hunk).

People who commit suicide, for example, are bored civil servants (the receptionist Adam and Barbara meet slit her wrists) rather than trees, as in the Inferno. Meanwhile, Sue Snell one of the girls who had earlier teased Carrie begins to feel remorseful for her participation in the locker room antics, takes pity on her and offers to become her friend. The movie paints the picture of hell as stuffy and bureaucratic rather than Dantean, with waiting rooms, oceans of red tape, and required reading (The "Handbook for the Recently Deceased"). However, Carrie gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. Carrie tries to keep these powers under control, even though she is continually pressed to the limit. Songs from Harry Belafonte are featured quite heavily in the movie, especially in one scene where Delia starts belting out "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)"—in Belafonte's voice, thanks to some spectral trickery; at a dinner she and Charles are hosting. Gym teacher Miss Desjardin sees what is going on and immediately wants the other girls barred from attending the upcoming school prom as punishment. Notable guest appearances include Robert Goulet and Dick Cavett (Delia's art agent). But the thought that this could be Carrie's first period never occurs to her classmates; instead of sympathizing with the frightened Carrie, they use it as an opportunity to taunt her, throwing tampons and sanitary napkins at her instead of helping.

A typically dark and humorous Tim Burton film, most of Keaton's lines were apparently improvised on set. Carrie who is terrified has no concept of menstruation; her mother never spoke to her about it, and she has been a social outcast throughout high school. He used to be an assistant to Juno (Sylvia Sidney), the Maitlands' case worker, before getting into trouble. Beetlejuice is rude, vulgar, eats insects, and loves to terrify people. She does not fare much better at her school, Thomas Ewin High School; at the beginning of the novel, she has her first period while showering after her physical education class. Adam and Barbara are not his only victims, as scams are his specialty. The book uses fictional documents to frame the story of Carrie White, a teenager from Chamberlin, Maine, who has been bullied at home for years by her vindictive Christian fundamentalist mother. Repeating this name three times is all that is required to summon him and also makes him leave. Carrie (1974) was Stephen King's first published novel.

The name of the film is the phonetic pronunciation of the lead character's name Betelgeuse who shares his name with a large red star in the constellation of Orion. ISBN 0743470605 (mass market paperback). The Deitz family consists of Charles (Jeffrey Jones), his second wife Delia (Catherine O'Hara), and moody goth teenage daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder). ISBN 8401498880 (hardcover). It features two recently deceased ghosts, Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) and his wife Barbara (Geena Davis), who seek the help of an obnoxious bio-exorcist, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), to remove the Deitz family — yuppies who recently moved from the city and now occupy their old house. ISBN 0671039725 (paperback, 2002). Beetlejuice is a film, directed by Tim Burton and first released in the USA on March 30, 1988 by Warner Bros. ISBN 0609810901 (paperback, 2001).

ISBN 0606205942 (prebound, 2001). ISBN 0671039733 (paperback, 2000). ISBN 8401499666 (hardcover, 1999). ISBN 0816156883 (library binding, 1994, Large Type Edition).

ISBN 1567800572 (paperback, 1992). ISBN 0385086954 (hardcover, 1990). ISBN 0606008233 (prebound, 1975).