The flame of horror-comedy cult classic Beetlejuice burns bright, and with a sequel creeping closer, here are the 6 most important characters to know.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice: the one phrase the Beetlejuice cast of characters aren’t supposed to say … unless, of course, they’re ready to contend with the results of summoning the legendary lunatic bio-exorcist and self-proclaimed “Ghost with the Most”. I, on the other hand, say it all the time and nothing ever happens. This wasn’t the case for key characters the Maitlands and the Deetzes. If you’ve yet to see Tim Burton’s 1989 horror-comedy cult classic and don’t plan to before watching the sequel, I urge you to rethink that. Just in case though, we’ve got you covered with little nuggets of info buried amongst this list of the six most important Beetlejuice characters to know.
With its distinct gothic visuals and unique supernatural premise, there’s never been a work of art so quirky and quaint as Beetlejuice. Our story follows recently deceased married couple Adam and Barbara Maitland as they watch a new family move in and take over their beloved home, to which they are confined. The Deetzes are quite an eccentric family, and their plan to remodel the house into a spectacle drives the Maitlands into a panic. When their efforts to haunt and drive the Deetzes out fail, the Maitlands say the one phrase they’re warned not to and summon Beetlejuice to do the deed. However, this “Ghost with the Most” has some very sinister ulterior motives, as he unleashes the fury of the afterlife in the mortal realm. The Maitlands and the Deetzes soon find out they’ll have to work together if they want to overpower this bio-exorcist.
Adam and Barbara Maitland
The Maitlands are the main protagonists of Beetlejuice. On the first day of their summer-at-home vacation, the couple die in a car accident after a quick trip into town to pick up supplies from the hardware store they own. Upon returning home, they discover they’re confined to live there as ghosts forever.
Adam (Alec Baldwin, of the Mission: Impossible franchise) is your quintessential nice guy. Nowadays he might be considered a nerd, thanks to his preferred attire of black and white, checkered button-up flannels over a red tee, paired with khakis, and that’s okay because, well, he is. And we love him for it.
Adam is the kind of guy who wants to get along with everyone and who wants everyone to get along. He’s practical, quiet, super polite, and just wants to live happily in peace with his wife. He’s an artist whose hobby is creating a realistic small-scale model of their town in Connecticut, Winter River. And it’s really amazing: It even includes a replica of the local cemetery, which becomes the source of their resident underworld pest.
As the other half of the recently deceased couple, Barbara (Geena Davis, A League of Their Own) is quite plain and pastoral … quaint. She’s a devoted housewife, a woman of simple pleasures who enjoys living in the countryside with her husband. Her hobby is working on her Victorian-style home, decorating it with the kind of country charm one would suspect: lots of lace and flowery wallpaper. Mmm.
*Alec Baldwin fans should absolutely see him in this role, since it’s completely opposite the types of confident, attractive roles he went on to play in his career. Perhaps best known for his Emmy-winning performance as NBC executive Jack Donaghy on the sitcom 30 Rock, Baldwin has stated in interviews that Adam Maitland is one of his least favorite roles. I assure you, it’ll become one of your favorites.
Charles and Delia Deetz
The Deetzes are supporting characters in Beetlejuice. Charles (Jeffrey Jones, of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) is a big real estate developer in New York who drags his daughter and new wife, Delia (Catherine O’Hara, of Schitt’s Creek), out to the Connecticut countryside to live a more stress-free life. He claims he just wants to “relax and clip coupons”, but he can’t resist his desire to continue his career—specifically the one he had before his nervous breakdown—and makes plans to sell the entire town of Winter River, which only drives the Maitlands deeper into panic and urgency to get rid of the Deetzes.
Compared to other Beetlejuice characters, Charles is … well, he’s uninteresting. And the fact that he’s so uninteresting in the simplest, quietest of ways is what makes him so fascinating. He truly cares for his family, though he always acts too busy for them. It’s really just his way of staying out of the way. He appeases Delia and tolerates her moods and efforts of “trashing the place” (i.e., redecorating the house) while doing his best to be attentive to his clearly unhappy daughter. Hesitant to take anything too seriously outside of real estate, Charles is both floored and in disbelief when he learns of the Maitlands and sees them decompose before his very eyes during a séance-turned-exorcism.
Delia, on the other hand, is extreme, overly dramatic, and overly eccentric as a person and an artist. She’s demanding and emotional, completely obscured by her need to be accepted in the high-end social circles and be successful as a modern, um, artist—and I use that term loosely, as her creations tend to be oddly creepy sculptures of, well, nothing. She fails to see the humor when it comes to her art, though, as every time people laugh, she looks momentarily stricken before looking around to confirm that something is funny.
Delia is totally self-absorbed and always finds something to complain about, and she has absolutely no respect for the dead as we both see and hear throughout the movie. She’s rather critical and bossy when it comes to Charles and quite critical and dismissive when it comes to his daughter. Her big struggle is adjusting to her new environment, which she plans to completely redecorate and turn into something straight out of an abstract artist’s demented, kooky painting. After learning of the Maitlands, she thinks that if she turns their home into a glorified haunted house for exposure, she’ll gather more attention for her art … and it almost works, but not quite.
Delia is a huge source of levity in Beetlejuice. When it comes to dramatic and emotional, it really doesn’t get any better than Catherine O’Hara, unless we’re considering Sally Field and Faye Dunaway. O’Hara is the perfect choice for this role, and you’ll see why once you watch the movie (and its upcoming sequel).
Lydia Deetz
As the daughter of Charles Deetz and the stepdaughter of Delia Deetz, Lydia (Winona Ryder, of Stranger Things) is your typical irritable but sweet teenage goth girl obsessed with darkness and death, but only in appearance and mostly to annoy Delia. She’s “strange and unusual”, gifted with a very dark (and lovable) sense of humor. Sensitive beyond her Gothic style and jet-black hair, which she wears up in a messy half-ponytail with jagged, parted bangs and pale face makeup, Lydia makes it clear from the get-go that she feels isolated in the world, especially since her father and stepmother often ignore her and often disregard her sentiments for their own selfish pursuits. She’s a poet of darkness, a photographer, and loves anything and everything pertaining to the supernatural and paranormal. And despite her young age, she appears to be the most sensible Deetz in the house.
Lydia is the only living person who can see the Maitlands and as a result, she befriends them and the three develop a very familial bond. Adam tutors her in math and Barbara helps her navigate the obstacles in her life. In a sense, Lydia becomes the daughter the Maitlands never had, and the Maitlands become the parents Lydia wishes she had. It’s only because of Lydia that Charles and Delia know of the Maitlands’ presence. Suffice it to say, Lydia becomes the bridge of communication between the living and the dead.
Ultimately, Lydia becomes the source of Beetlejuice’s obsession. He plans to marry her so he can return to the mortal realm and unleash the fury of the underworld. As Beetlejuice puts Lydia life at risk, it’s everyone’s love for her that brings the Maitlands and Deetzes together to take him down. It’s also the reason they agree to live under the same roof in peace afterwards, and in doing so, the Maitlands and Deetzes work together as parental figures taking strong roles in Lydia’s upbringing.
Betelgeuse
The titular character of Beetlejuice has a different spelling from the movie’s name, and that’s but one of his eccentricities. He is our main source of levity, and our most important character, and he’s also our antagonist. Formerly the assistant to the Maitland’s afterlife case worker, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton, of Birdman) is a troublemaker who went out on his own as a freelance bio-exorcist, claiming he could get rid of the living, which only got him into more trouble. The self-proclaimed “ghost with the most” is a mischievous, trickster who takes on the job of haunting the Deetzes. Betelgeuse is creepy, rude, crude, and obnoxious … and horny, an over-sexualized, dirty and gross used-car-salesman type.
Betelgeuse first appears not long after the Maitlands die. While reading the newspaper The Afterlife, he spots them in the obit section and remarks that they look like a cute couple, “Nice and stupid.” Betelgeuse spends his time sleazing around the cemetery in Adam’s model of Winter River, where he is seen seducing, capturing, then devouring a housefly. The green-haired ghost is also a shapeshifter who can possess the living, and he’ll stop at nothing to escape his hell and wreak havoc on the living.
In one of his funniest, best, and most memorable quotes, Betelgeuse facetiously explains his qualifications to the Maitlands in a most iconic scene: “Ah, well, I attended Julliard, I’m a graduate of Harvard Business School, I’ve traveled quite extensively, I lived through the Black Plague and had a pretty good time during that, I’ve seen The Exorcist 167 times and it keeps getting funnier EVERY SINGLE TIME I see it … not to mention the fact that you’re talkin’ to a dead guy! Now what do you think?”
Of course, these aren’t the only characters in Beetlejuice, but they are the most important characters to know, and they’re the ones you’ll want to familiarize yourself with before heading into the sequel. Buckle up, afterlife fans … It’s showtime!
Beetlejuice is now available to watch on digital and on demand. The sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, will open the 2024 Venice Film Festival on August 28, 2024 and open globally in theaters on September 6, 2024. Read our review of Beetlejuice!
