National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Warner Bros. released Beetlejuice in March 1988, with Tim Burton directing from a script by Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson. The film arrived at a moment when studio fantasy was leaning toward the safe and familiar, and Burton's aggressively strange vision of the afterlife stood apart. It became a genuine cultural touchstone, launching a franchise and cementing Burton's reputation as a filmmaker willing to let the genuinely weird carry a mainstream picture.

This cell captures Betelgeuse, Barbara Maitland, and Adam Maitland together in a darkened interior, the title confirmed as Beetlejuice, Barbara and Adam. Michael Keaton's striped suit reads clearly across both frames, with Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin present in nearly identical framing — a quiet, close moment between the film's three central figures preserved on original 35mm.