Falconer-Beetlejuice

It is common for young children to be afraid of the dark; but why does that room they are so familiar with become such a scary place when the sun goes down and the lights turn off? One theory is that naturally humans fear what they don’t know. In the light what you see is what you get but in the dark there is a chance you could miss something. So when it comes to the unknown death is the biggest mystery to us all. Do you go to heaven/hell? Will your soul be reincarnated to live another life? Maybe death is truly the end of everything and there is no such thing as an afterlife. Whatever death may mean no one can be positive. Because Americans are so afraid of this fate we begin to deny it. Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice denies death by portraying the afterlife as very similar to life hear on earth. The characters Adam and Barbara’s lives stay so similar after their accident it isn’t until Adams attempts to leave the house that they notice anything is wrong. They get to keep their same human form, live in the same house and be together. They even receive a “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” outlining afterlife for them. Now if Americans knew they would receive a handbook after death do you think they would fear it so much?

To most Americans death is an anathema because we are so unsure of what it means but to some it is an idea of peace. Jim Morrison of “The Doors” says, “People fear death even more than pain. It’s strange they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over.” In Beetlejuice this alternative cultural outlook on death is shown by Lydia. At one point she feels so overwhelmed by her differences from those around her she considers that by taking her own life she can fix this. Adam and Barbara are horrified she thinks this and explain to her that life is much better than the afterlife. 

Beetlejuice, much like heaven/hell or reincarnation creates another theory of what happens after death. These theories help people to cope with their fears. The films comical twist on the afterlife helps to make it not so scary. But in the end that is denying death. All these theories are temporary distractions to keep us from facing the idea of no longer living. In the end all we have are entertaining movies or religious beliefs to explain death because who ever has encountered death can’t come back to tell the tale.