Stupidity: Juno adamantly warns Adam and Barbara against getting help from Beetlejuice, but then proceeds to freely tell them exactly how to conjure him. She even snubs them when Adam asks how to get back in touch with her should they need her assistance again.
Phaneron
13th Sep 2024
Beetlejuice (1988)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: I think she was giving them more of a warning against conjuring him accidentally by saying his name three times. Didn't she tell Adam that she wasn't available when he asked? That might explain the snub.
If she was warning them about accidentally saying his name three times, then it also would have been wise for her to tell them in that same moment that they could make him go away by saying his name three times again, but she didn't. She also said she wasn't available to help them in that moment, not at a later date like Adam was asking. By refusing to answer Adam's question, she made it more likely that they would turn to Beetlejuice for help.
30th Oct 2018
Beetlejuice (1988)
Question: Is there any reason besides plot convenience that the Deetzes didn't enter the attic during the three months that the Maitlands were away from the house to meet with Juno? I realise they don't have the key, but seeing as how they were renovating the entire house anyway, it seems like they would have had no problem just knocking the door down.
Answer: No reason was given, but they probably felt no immediate need to enter the attic. I've never been in my own house's attic. As you pointed out, it's really a matter of plot convenience.
Answer: After the dinner scene when Otho asked where they hid and Lydia said "the attic" Charles replied that the attic was locked. So it seems like she never told them she had the skeleton key.
I addressed this in the question. A key is not required to get into the attic because they could just break the door down.
Except they didn't break the door down. Delia kept banging on the door until it opened. If they had broken the door down, there would have been some damage.
Answer: This is purely for convenience. It's always bothered me. Like since the early 90s when I first had a VHS copy to rewind. That whole house has been gutted and rebuilt but no-one got in to the attic for 3 months? That's BS. For one thing not only would someone like Charles Deets want to see every square inch of his property, but a major company/contractor doing a remodel of that size would have at some time needed access to and been on every square foot of that house.
Quite often, people don't think about the attic along with the rest of the house. Many of them won't be going into the attic every day, not every month, maybe not more than once a year.
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