lionhead

19th May 2023

Beetlejuice (1988)

Question: When Barbara and Adam change their faces and are ready to go scare everyone, Barbara confesses to Adam that she doesn't want to go through with it. She says that she wants to be with Lydia. Why does she suddenly become infatuated with wanting to be with this girl whom she hardly even knows? It would make more sense if they both grew to love the whole family instead of just Lydia alone. Thus, her sudden change of heart seems kind of strange.

Answer: Lydia is a child, and Barbara and Adam both wanted to have children. Barbara's mother instincts just suddenly kicked in.

lionhead

Answer: I agree with the answer by Lionhead, and I would like to add: Lydia has already spoken to the ghosts more than her parents have. She has been more understanding and tolerant. To me, it makes perfect sense that Barbara has already connected with Lydia more than Lydia's parents.

20th Nov 2022

Beetlejuice (1988)

Question: What did Jane say to Barbara that upset her? The only thing I could make out was, "This place" and "family."

Answer: Jane says "the house is meant for a couple with a family" and is therefore too big for them. Meaning that Adam and Barbara have no children and thus aren't a family yet. It upset her to be reminded that they don't have any children.

lionhead

Adam even suggests 'trying again on vacation,' implying they'd tried to have a child before. It's why they bonded with Lydia so well; they'd been hoping to be parents.

Brian Katcher

31st Aug 2021

Beetlejuice (1988)

Answer: No, Adam and Barbara are just using their ghost powers to levitate her.

Phaneron

Answer: Lydia is being possessed, like during the "Tally Me Banana" scene earlier in the movie.

LorgSkyegon

Lydia is not affected during the banana song scene.

lionhead

Let me clarify: like the others at the dinner party during the "Tally Me Banana" scene.

LorgSkyegon

Lydia was not possessed during the dinner scene or at the end of the movie when she levitated.

8th Apr 2020

Beetlejuice (1988)

Answer: This is never revealed.

lionhead

Answer: It's been inferred that she died from a sickness.

2nd Jun 2019

Beetlejuice (1988)

Question: When Adam and Barbara start to age and die near the end of the movie, I don't get how they didn't "die" again. How did they end up completely fine at the end?

Answer: Otho is attempting to exorcise them (remember how the afterlife janitor said exorcism was death for the dead), but Beetlejuice interrupted the ceremony, restoring them.

Brian Katcher

Answer: It's not completely clear what was happening to them but it's somewhere along the lines of the ritual making them corporeal or even partially resurrecting them but the ritual wasn't done properly so their bodies started to decay. Beetlejuice reversed that process and turned them back into ghosts.

lionhead

23rd Feb 2019

Beetlejuice (1988)

Question: If the Maitlands aren't dead at the end and the Deetzes agreed to share the house, then how did Lydia fly while dancing?

Answer: The Maitlands are still dead. They are still ghosts.

lionhead

Answer: The Maitlands are definitely still dead. Absolutely nothing in the movie indicates they came back to life. Lydia flying and all the things happening around the house at the end are the Maitland's doing - they're having fun with Lydia using their otherworldly abilities because Lydia's doing good in school.

TedStixon

27th Dec 2018

Beetlejuice (1988)

Question: At first, the football team doesn't realise that they died. So why do they think that Juno is their coach?

Answer: They are very confused and probably not the sharpest tools in the shed. Juno probably told them they should do what she says and they immediately associated that with a coach.

lionhead

Answer: Right before the Maitlands walk in, one of the football players asks, "coach, where's the men's room?" After which Juno finally loses her cool and dismisses the team out the door. After Juno's conversation with Adam and Barbara, one player comes back in and says, "Coach I don't think we survived the crash" suggesting they realised they were dead.

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.

Phaneron

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.

raywest

Maybe Lydia reserved it like Charles reserved one room for himself too.

lionhead

Good point.

Phaneron

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.

lartaker1975

I addressed this in the question. A key is not required to get into the attic because they could just break the door down.

Phaneron

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.

I didn't say they broke the door down. I was stating that they could knock the door down if they needed to get into the attic and didn't have the key. Please reread the original question.

Phaneron

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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