25 reasons why we still love Beetlejuice

Screenshot of official Beetlejuice trailer via warnerbros.com.

11. Beetlejuice’s Commercial

As a contrast to the afterlife bureaucracy the Maitlands attempt to utilize to help with their people problem, there’s at least one freelancer ready to help them haunt outside the lines. Spelling his name as “Betelgeuse,” this “bio-exorcist” is revealed as Juno’s former assistant gone rogue. He’s been trapped underground due to bad behavior, but he’s got his eyes on the Maitlands to help release him. “Cute couple,” he says when he sees their obit in the paper. “Look nice and stupid, too.”

After unsuccessfully trying to lure them with an ad slipped in the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, Beetlejuice tries some heavier promotional tactics that are hilariously weird. He makes a commercial magically appear on their television in the attic. In it, he’s posed as a cowboy. “Havin’ trouble with the livin’?” he says, jumping around in a hat and chaps. “I’ll do anything. I’ll scare ‘em real bad…”

Words like “Act now” and “Free” flash across the screen, though Beetlejuice does have a price: he needs someone to free him by repeating his name three times.

Frustrated by the civil servant runaround they’ve encountered, the Maitlands are tempted by Beetlejuice’s claims, especially as living with the Deetzes becomes more unbearable.