25 reasons why we still love Beetlejuice

Screenshot of official Beetlejuice trailer on warnerbros.com.

23. Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz

Worse than being stuck in their house, the Maitlands face an even greater threat to their spiritual happiness in Beetlejuice: the arrival of a wealthy New York family who has purchased their home.

The matriarch of the family is Delia, played brilliantly and shrilly by Catherine O’Hara. She’s a sculptor who’s resentful about the move to the small town to please her investor husband, Charles, along with his daughter, Lydia. Delia’s especially a threat to Barbara and Adam, because she wants to transform their beloved home right in front of their ghostly eyes.

O’Hara gets Delia down perfectly, a mix of artistic passion, ridiculousness, stubbornness, and style—and a quality her stepdaughter Lydia later refers to as “too mean to be afraid.” Her art creation is her ultimate goal of the film, and the ambition that drives her forward. “You know I’m only truly happy when I’m sculpting,” she tells her husband.

Resentful as she is about their move from her life in the city, she eventually comes around to the idea of the place—if she can put her artistic stamp on it. “A little gasoline. Blowtorch. No problem.”

When Charles balks at her idea of changing his new home, she snaps back at him, her voice going more piercing with every word. “Charles, I will not stop living and breathing art just because you need to relax. I’m here with you. I will live with you in this hellhole. But I must express myself. If you don’t let me gut out this house and make it my own, I will go insane and I will take you with me!”

Yet despite her neuroses and temper, Delia’s got a fire within her that’s worthy of any poltergeist: “You have got to take the upper hand in all situations,” she tells her daughter, “or people, whether they’re dead or alive, will walk all over you.”