Thanks to an untimely demise via drowning, a young couple end up as poltergeists in their New England farmhouse, where they fail to meet the challenge of scaring away the insufferable new owners, who want to make drastic changes. In desperation, the undead newlyweds turn to an expert frightmeister, but he's got a diabolical agenda of his own.
Not since Ghostbusters have the spirits been so uplifting.
– Rita Kempley,
Washington Post,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
[The] actors, not surprisingly, are limited by the stupidity of their material.
– Janet Maslin,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
fresh:
An appealing mess.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
7 Aug 2004
fresh:
Luckily, Keaton pops up from his grave to liven things up when the antics pitting the good ghosts against the intruders become a trite cat & mouse game.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
8 Aug 2008
fresh:
Beetlejuice means something good: that imaginative artists can bring a fading genre back from the dead.