What's in Beetlejuice's Netflix queue?

Ash Walker • 05 Sep 2024 Features

Daylight come and me wan’ go… watch TV.

With the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton’s belated sequel to his own 1988 cult classic, we’ve been left wondering what the ghost with the most has been up to these past 30-odd years.

The answer? Watching TV, of course! Just like the rest of us. But what, we hear you cry, is everyone’s favourite bio-exorcist bingeing right now? Just what horrors lurk in the depths of Beetlejuice’s Netflix queue?

Let’s turn on the Juice and see what shakes loose!

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

Credit: THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE Official Trailer (Movie Trailers Source, YouTube)

If there’s one thing Beetlejuice likes to do - aside from visiting certain insalubrious establishments - it’s scaring people. That’s basically his whole thing.

As a self-proclaimed ‘bio-exorcist’, the Juice concerns himself with running off unwanted, unsuspecting mortals, and he does so with spooky, imaginative gusto. So what better series for him to get stuck into than Mike Flanagan’s excellent - and terrifying - generational ghost story?

A (loose) adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s classic novel, Hill House is practically bursting with gruesome ghouls: the Bent-Neck Lady, the Tall Man, that horrible Smiley Face thing. It’s enough to give a bio-exorcist ideas.

Call this one research, as well as entertainment.

Stranger Things (2016-present)

Credit: Stranger Things | Official Final Trailer (Netflix, YouTube)

Another brilliantly spooky Netflix series, although this one might have drawn Beetlejuice’s eye for a slightly different reason…

Eternally harried mother Joyce Byers looks an awful lot like Lydia Deetz, the disaffected goth girl who had a hand in Beetlejuice’s ultimate downfall back in the late 80s. They even share the same affinity for the ‘strange and unusual’.

So what if Beetlejuice tried to force her into a supernatural green-card marriage? We’re betting that he’s still holding a grudge. And he’d probably take some pleasure in watching her be chased around by interdimensional monsters.

Ghostbusters (1984)

Credit: Ghostbusters (1984) Trailer #1 (Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers, YouTube)

Sometimes even ghosts like to get scared, and what could be more terrifying to Beetlejuice than a film about a team of guys who make it their business to hunt beings just like him?

Ghostbusters must be the ultimate horror movie for spooks - a spectral slasher flick, where ghouls are picked off, one by one, and imprisoned for eternity in a dingy Manhattan basement.

A true nightmare for the Juice. Although even he would appreciate the bit where people turn into monstrous dogs.

Emily in Paris (2020-present)

Credit: Emily in Paris | Official Trailer (Netflix, YouTube)

Look, it can get pretty boring being dead. All that time on your ghostly hands, waiting for someone to come along and say your name three times. Can you blame a guy for wanting a little escapism?

This is exactly the kind of weirdly addictive, mildly absurd soap opera that Beetlejuice would get sucked into during his lengthy afterlife. He’d be right there with the rest of us, dreaming about croissants and waiting desperately for the second half of Season 4.

Plus it doesn’t hurt that Emily has a strikingly familiar sense of style…

Beetlejuice (1988)

Credit: Beetlejuice | 4K Trailer (Warner Bros. Entertainment, YouTube)

It can’t be denied that our favourite ghost has a terribly high opinion of himself, so it makes sense that this would be right at the top of his Watchlist. And, come on, it’s a great movie!

It has everything: drama, scares, romance, comedy. And a bit where Catherine O’Hara gets possessed and sings calypso music. What more could a ghoul want?

Of course, it stands to reason that Beetlejuice would turn this movie off before getting to the end. He wouldn’t want to relive the humiliation of being outsmarted by a bunch of rookie spooks and a teenage girl. Or of having his head shrunk by a ghostly witch doctor.

And obviously he’d hide behind a cushion for the part with the sandworms.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is in cinemas now, and all of the movies and TV shows mentioned here are available to stream on Netflix. So why not add them to your own Watchlist, grab a beautiful bunch of ripe bananas, and get stuck in?