BeetlejuiceA recently deceased young couple, Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), are reluctant to cast off their respective mortal coils when their idyllic country home is sold to a family of try-hard urbanites.
Unable to scare the new residents with their fledgling supernatural powers - indeed, Goth teen Lydia (Winona Ryder) can actually 'see' the Maitlands and quite likes them - they enlist the unaccredited services of a sociopathic bio-exorcist with boundary issues.
Burton taps Michael Keaton's improvisational skills in a comically unhinged performance perfectly attuned to the film's off-the-wall surrealism.
"We went big with effects that are, in a sense, a step backward", Burton explained of his approach to the film's (mid-level budget) special effects. "They're crude and funky and also very personal".
