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In anticipation of the sequel Beetlejuice 2 to be released around September 2024, we decided to look back at the surprisingly simple yet incredibly convincingly effects that helped make the original film, the classic it is today.
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Beetlejuice had a very slim visual effects budget and this meant they had to get creative by using every trick in the book.
They used stop-motion animation for scenes like the beetle juice snake, models and bluescreen compositing for scenes like the Sandworm, they used puppets for Adam's headless body, animatronics for the chain-smoker and the shrunken-head guy in the afterlife waiting room, clever lighting to hide the wires that were lifting Lydia, and mirrors set at 45 degrees from the camera to create these ghostlike transparencies.
But some of the most convincing effects there were in Beetlejuice, were also some of the simplest.
One of those incredibly simple (but effective) special effects was in this scene.
Here, they removed the glass from the mirror over the fireplace and then turned the whole fireplace 180 degrees so that it faced back into the room.
This way both the actors were actually looking back into the room.
To achieve the horse reflection effect, a stand-in held an identical (but mirrored) model that was on the end of a stick on the other side of the fireplace.
You can see here that, it's shot so that Geena's hand covers the stick the stand-in used to move the other horse, and even though the model horses were set on either side of the mirror's frame to sell the reflection, it wasn't perfect, and this one actually has its head turned the wrong way.
Another example of simple effects was in this scene here.
Adam's decapitated head was a practical model.
However, later in the scene Adam's head had to talk, and here is where they used an incredibly simple technique to create an extremely convincing effect.
Alec Baldwin had a prosthetic neck attached just under his chin. He then crouched behind a black show card that had a cut out for his neck.
The shot happens so quickly that you don't realize that he's just crouched behind a piece of black card or that (in the shot before) you can see that the desk is wood, and not black as you see in the close-up.
As you may have guessed, this simple "Day-O" shrimp effect was achieved by having people sticking their arms up through holes in the table whilst wearing gloves with shrimp fingers.
However, the people under the table couldn't see where the actors' faces were (in order to grab hold of them and pull them down).
So... after various failed attempts and actors getting poked in the mouth, nose, and eyes, they actually decided to film the scene in reverse.
And have the actors start with their faces in the bowl, then the hand push their faces up out of the bowl, and then release them.
The film's final scene was Beetlejuice in the waiting room sitting with a magician's assistant who really got chopped in half.
This effect was achieved by having holes cut into the sofa cushions.
This actress was actually crouched inside the sofa using her sequin top to cover the hole in the cushion. And these legs were those of Lena Gieseke (Tim Burton's girlfriend at the time), and she was lying down through a hole cut in the wall with this part of her dress covering the hole in the cushion.
One of the only effects to be done in post-production was Beetlejuice's shrinking head.
this was achieved by filming Michael Keaton's body performance with a locked-off camera and then compositing another shot of his facial performance with a camera zooming out.
All of these clever and cheap effects coupled the films "B-movie" aesthetic are part of what made the movie the hit that it was, And knowing that Tim Burton is on board for the sequel, we know that (even though they will obviously use modern-day vfx) they will use them in the same sparing and intelligent way, and hopefully, maintain the same excitement and magic that made us love its predecessor.
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