Beetlejuice’s New Backstory Ruins the Original’s Best Fan Theory
Warning: This article contains descriptions of self-harm.
We’re just a week away from the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and the film’s marketing department is clearly in full swing, bombarding the world with advertisements, merchandise and even a line of Beetlejuice-themed Denny’s meals which, to be fair, do look like they’ll fittingly bring you one step closer to the afterlife.
Warner Bros. also released a full scene from the film in which Beetlejuice (aka Betelgeuse) reveals the tragic incident that led to his demise. Apparently, the “ghost with the most” was formerly a grave robber during the Black Plague. But he fell in love with Monica Bellucci’s character (naturally) and got hitched.
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But then, immediately after consummating the marriage, poor Beetlejuice was murdered, poisoned by his new bride, who, it turns out, was the “leader of a soul-sucking death cult.”
Keep in mind, this is all coming from Beetlejuice himself, who may not be entirely trustworthy. But it does beg the question: Did we need a full biography explaining the origins of this horny demon-man?
Not only does shading in Beetlejuice’s Earthly backstory arguably rob the character of his streamlined chaotic intrigue, it contradicts one of the best theories about the original movie.
As fans have pointed out, at one point in Beetlejuice, Otho the psychic interior decorator remarks that people who commit suicide “become civil servants in the afterlife.” This remark is seemingly confirmed by what we see in the “Neitherworld.” The bureaucracy that awaits new ghosts is staffed by workers who all bear scars pointing to a self-inflicted death, including the beauty pageant contestant receptionist, who shows off her slit wrists, and one employee who’s still hanging from a noose.
Juno, the caseworker for Adam and Barbara Maitland, similarly sports a large cut running along her neck, and she mentions that Beetlejuice was once her assistant.
Which would imply that Beetlejuice, too, was a victim of suicide. This lines up with early versions of the original script, which suggested that Beetlejuice “committed suicide while he was inebriated.”
That element of the Beetlejuice-verse was seemingly scrapped for the new movie, which presumably wouldn’t want to add to the stigma surrounding mental health issues by inferring that people who end their own lives are forced to spend eternity laboring in a neon-bathed office. But by giving us a definitive explanation of Beetlejuice’s origins, the sequel erases this theory as a possibility.
That is too bad, because it also makes some scenes in the original far more meaningful, such as when Beetlejuice questions Lydia’s desire to take her own life. Beetlejuice arguably represents the path Lydia shouldn’t take, in contrast to the Maitlands, who give her a reason to live.
We’ll have to wait and see how this all of this shakes out in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but hopefully it won’t sully our memories of the original by having, say, Beetlejuice look directly into the camera and recommend that we all stop by Denny’s for a Grand Slam on the way home from the movie.
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