𝕮𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖕 𝕴𝖙 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖑

𝗰𝗮𝘁 | 𝘀𝗵𝗲/𝗵𝗲𝗿 |🔞 i draw once a year ✞ (following from hellboundgorehound) ✞

[cxtxphile]

when did things move so damn fast?

astrid is his mini me, his babes junior, his little babes, his tiny beast of burden, his baby bat. kids are little snot nosed brats but his is the snottiest. she's so much like lydia it makes his moldy ass chest hurt and he loves her that much more because of it

[asdfghnbvfdwertyt65rewerfg-deac]

i just think itd be funny if kittypets were a little more familiar to twoleg things such as: cars and bad words

[classichorrorblog]

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

[berrysanxiety]

[berrysanxiety]

Them

[mollybeenoel]

Source: poeticalphotos

[cxtxphile]

i'm hoping if i post this it'll give me the kick in the ass i need to finish it, but for now take a wip of the 3 beejs. theyre an aardwolf, a brown hyena and a striped hyena respectively :)

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Theory

Lydia is an unreliable narrator. Winona Ryder's personal headcanon that Lydia is a spinster by choice waiting in that attic is true. The film begins with her in the window in the house on the hill before blipping her over to New York suspiciously, and ends with her presumably in that same room. Astrid and Rory and Richard aren't real. The events of the film are all Betelgeuse indulging his wife's desire for a child, something he can't give her.

But he's sick and has to make his jokes, so he makes sure to remind her at the end with grandbabyjuice that her desire for a normal life is misguided and ridiculous, and she's stuck with him. Till death do we part, babes.

Cliche? Absolutely. Is that BJ's brand? Absolutely. The more I think about it, the more this is the most valid interpretation of the plot.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

If this is when Betelgeuse fell in love with Lydia

then everything he does to her in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a trick to prove she is dreaming.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Additionally, if Lydia's "600 year age gap" line is satirical, which the intellectuals among us agree it must be, then Lydia would only subscribe to this hard line objection in this bizarre alternate universe where she ignores BJ for thirty years and has a child and a life. If she felt differently, which we know Winona feels she does, she wouldn't have ignored his calls. She wouldn't have met other men. She wouldn't have had a child.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

In the scene in the attic with Lydia and Astrid, we're shown a brief glimpse of who Lydia was before she had her daughter; happy, being herself. This is intentional. After having Astrid, she likely dropped the camera to become this watered down version of herself, monetized her gift, and lost her roots. Motherhood is tiring. It happens.

The healing scene with Richard isn't for Astrid. It's for Lydia. BJ wouldn't conjure a fake mother for her to pretend to care to heal that trauma. Lydia wouldn't want that. But he could give her Richard.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Let's look at the toon. BJ inserts himself into every facet of Lydia's life that he can, to an inarguably toxic degree. He is her best friend, her girlfriend, her cousin, her handyman, her fucking dog; he plays any role she requires of him as long as it allows him access to her life.

But he can't give her children. It's probably the only thing he can't give her.

Barbara and Adam moved on and that's when BJ got his claws into her. The toon happens in this slot of time. Lydia, however, never leaves the house on the hill. Charles and Delia die the same way they do in canon, and BJ moves right on in.

Life goes on. Lydia ages. She goes through menopause and never gets to have the child she didn't know she wanted. She mourns it. She wishes for it terribly. So BJ gives her that experience.

Hence, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

I'm not done. Richard's death mirrors Charles' because Richard is a charicature of Lydia's parental abandonment. They're both chaotic and humorous, one is just framed that way and the other isn't. In this way, Richard partially symbolizes Lydia's genuine grief for her father's passing.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Also, let's think about the imagery of the original movie's opening sequence. A spider coming onto the tiny model house; an unwelcome visitor who needs to be ousted. It's the whole plot of the movie.

Now remember the opening of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice; Lydia in that room in the attic asking the question "The living and the dead: can they coexist?" Is this life enough for her? Can she live alone with BJ without Astrid?

Considering this interpretation alongside the heartache of the Maitlands' inability to conceive makes it make even more sense.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Adding to the Carrie references present in the end sequence with Astrid's demonic birthing scene, I would also like to draw everyone's attention to the overhead shot of a car driving along idyllic scenery as Lydia narrates her fantasy happy ending. Remind anyone of anything? This shot from The Shining perhaps?

And what is The Shining about? An unstable substance-abusing parent who becomes the caretaker of a haunted house and subsequently loses his mind. We've got another small nod to Jack with BJ being a hatchet man.

And what do the ghosts want from Jack's young son Danny, another child with paranormal abilities? To play with with him. Forever.

Much like BJ with his babes in the toonverse. And movieverse, apparently.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

I'll stop reblogging this post when I stop finding evidence to support this theory.

Why does Lydia never leave Winter River or New York? We can assume she was born in New York. She has the money. She has the means. But as far as we're shown, she simply doesn't travel outside of these places that we know she's already been. My assumption is that dream can only take her to familiar places; New York, Winter River, and the afterlife. The only time she appears to actually leave the dream and go see the world is during The Shining scene referenced above.

As further support that toonverse and movieverse are married, the thunderstorm-at-night motif that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens on is a shot for shot throwback to how many of the toon episodes opened; Lydia in her bedroom at night during a thunderstorm, up to shenanigans with Betelgeuse.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Let's talk about Johnathan Glickman, who served as the president of MGM, is currently the CEO of Miramax, and was either an assistant or executive producer on dozens of movies and shows that you've probably seen, including the 2013 remake of Carrie. That's right, the one with the alternate ending that Jenna Ortega's Astrid is referencing with her demonic birth scene.

Johnathan Glickman was also the Executive Producer on Wednesday, where Tim Burton and Jenna Ortega met.

Johnathan Glickman also oversaw the production of the 2015 remake of Poltergeist collaborating with Ghost House Productions.

Is his name ringing any bells yet? I'm sure it is. This isn't the first time Tim has lashed out artistically at someone who has crossed him. See; Mr. Monitor and Little Miss Warden. I'm sure there are more examples if we look hard enough.

So at the same time that Tim was directing Wednesday, the great beetlebabe wars were happening all over social media, and Wednesday fans were being just as obnoxious with entitled fan behavior. We now know Winona is a babe. Tim says that this is the time period that he became inspired to do Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

I look at all these disconnecting threads and I see a perfect storm of spite and creativity, and I ask myself: Why wouldn't Tim just give Winona her own personal headcanon after everything they've been through together? I think he would give her just about anything.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

The babes and I have been racking our brains trying to figure out what the end scene with Lydia awakening from her fever dream alone in bed is supposed to be referencing, and @theblacklistforever97 came through for me again and reminded me of Dorothy waking up in The Wizard of Oz.

Lydia's scene is a funhouse mirror of this, the difference being that Dorothy is immediately surrounded by loved ones concerned for her wellbeing.

Lydia is almost utterly alone.

Reminder: Dorothy has to click her ruby heels and repeat her magic words three times in order to return home from Oz.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

It was brought to my attention that during the opening sequence of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice where the camera pans over Winter River using the thunderstorm-at-night motif, we're shown a bizarre mix of the model and reality.

It's raining. The houses are lit up. Cars are driving on the street and pulling into homes. There's lightning flashing. Then, the closer we get to the house on the hill we start seeing little doll people and fake cows and figurines, even a couple of miniatures that resemble the Maitlands at first glance, all leading up to the zoom-in on Lydia in the attic asking the film's intrinsic question; can she coexist with Betelgeuse?

I don't know what showing us this melding fantastical realistic miniature world with Lydia enclosed inside it is meant to convey other than that everything that happens in this movie is an illusion.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Reblogging to link in Casper parallels.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

My personal speculation on Astrid's demonic birthing scene in the context of this theory is that fear is a form of foreplay for Betelgeuse. Lydia's greatest fear is probably him getting his hooks into her daughter, whether real or imaginary. This is probably why Winona always theorized that Lydia never married; fear of invoking Betelgeuse's wrath in some way or another.

For her daughter to be happy to birth Betelgeuse's spawn signifies not only the loss of her child but also the loss of maidenly love; the fairytale of the persistent, loyal suitor. It's the evolution of maiden to mother to crone in action.

But this can only be interpreted as a threat on Betelgeuse's part if you think Astrid is real. I don't. I think Betelgeuse is probably experiencing feelings of petulance and inadequacy that he can't give Lydia a real child. The best he can do is the Astrid specter, and Lydia wants Astrid terribly. He loves her but he's a jealous creature. There's a tug of war happening between Astrid and Betelgeuse throughout the plot, with Lydia playing the rope. Demeter and Persephone have switched roles.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a dream Lydia has every night by choice.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

I want to talk about Betelgeuse/Jeremy parallels and garden of eden symbolism now. Forgive me if this is a bit disjointed and doesn't cover everything. Anyone is welcome to reblog and add-in at any point to clarify or dig deeper.

Jeremy is a dark funhouse mirror of Betelgeuse. His and Astrid’s story follows Lydia and Betelgeuse's beat for beat, with the glaring twist that Jeremy ‒ handsome, young, charismatic, dependable, trustworthy, everything Betelgeuse isn't ‒ is out for his own evil gain and does not love Astrid.

The tree Astrid's bike crashes into is the tree of knowledge, and Jeremy is the serpent in the garden offering forbidden fruit; information about and passage into the afterlife, a chance to reunite with her beloved, long-lost parent, and an exciting rebellious love affair.

It's everything Lydia ever wanted, and she got it in the cartoon, just not with the Prince Vince archetype of her nightmares dreams. Astrid is Lydia's forbidden fruit, and Betelgeuse is the serpent in the garden letting her harvest at whim.

Jeremy's actions also squash the pervasive fanon concept exacerbated by the musical that Betelgeuse wants to be alive. He could have pulled this shit at any point on anyone and he never does, because it's not something that interests him. Marrying Lydia was never about coming back to life, it was about getting access to the living realm.

It doesn't hurt that he loves her, too.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

I keep coming back to this scene because it's rife with symbolism and so many references it's impossible to cover it all in one post, so here we are again.

Every demonic birthing scene filmed after Rosemary's Baby demands to be viewed under the context of Rosemary's Baby, we all know this, but other people have pointed out to me that Astrid's birthing sequence is yet also a reference to David Cronenberg's 1986 version of The Fly.

From the wiki synopsis of the film: "Ronnie learns that she is pregnant by Seth and has a nightmare of giving birth to a giant maggot."

After her nightmare, Ronnie sets out to have an abortion. Seth, "the fly", loses his mind upon overhearing her plans and concocts a desperate plot to use the telepod to fuse himself, Ronnie, and their unborn child together into a single entity.

I think by now everyone knows what I'm getting at by sharing this anecdote here.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

If Astrid is our Lydia-proxy, then Rory represents everything Lydia ever hated about Delia. He is every divorced parent's disappointing rebound fling. Yes, on the surface he exists to highlight Betelgeuse's undying devotion to Lydia, but his humiliating end can also be a seen as a sort of rape-and-revenge fantasy for the Evil Step-Parent archetype.

Rory's association with Delia is further supported by the character's source inspiration: Otho.

We know Lydia and Delia smoothed out their beef as adults, but when she was fresh to the family, things were tense. Lydia was an angry sullen brat in the first Beetlejuice, partially because she was being forced to live with this neurotic loud mouth Bitch. We love you, Delia, but you had your moments. It didn't help their relationship that Charles was forcing the "Mom" label where it really didn't need to be forced.

Astrid's show of angst at her mother's cringe-inducing engagement is Lydia's rage at her father marrying Delia. It leads Astrid directly to Jeremy's treehouse, just as Lydia's disgust with her father and Delia's incompetence drove her to the attic, and a potential suicide that Betelgeuse thankfully curtailed. Before the Maitlands interrupted, Lydia was sucking in her lips. She was going to say his name a third time.

Returning to; Astrid fell for the trap that Lydia didn't.

But if Lydia had fallen for the trap, Betelgeuse would have taken her to the other side and...(insert the cartoon here)

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

I'm annoyed it took me so long to catch this one.

In this scene, Lydia lets us know that her relationship with her father was lacking, and for good reason. We're also shown a menagerie of taxidermy birds belonging to the late Charles Deetz. This is the Hitchcock reference I've been looking for, and it's a double whammy.

I'll cover the most obvious one first. A relevant snippet from The Birds' wiki page:

I'm admittedly out of date on my Hitchcock so I am unable to breakdown the parallels between plots and characters, but these themes speak for themselves. If any Hitchcock afficionados want to try tackling that, please be my guest.

Edit: A cursory read-through of the plot synopsis on Wikipedia informed me that the main character, Mitch, has an overbearing mother who cannot abide any women in his life. Her name is Lydia. Lydia is afraid of ending up alone.

That these are taxidermy birds is especially relevant because who was a lover of taxidermy but the one, the only, the original Psycho: Norman Bates.

These numerous and mounting parallels do not bode well for Lydia's reliability as a narrator.

Alfred Hitchcock famously coined a term for people who take media so literally that they are incapable of deciphering deeper meaning from the text. He called them Plausibles. Tim Burton is a Hitchcock Fuckboi and well aware of this concept.

Sidenote: It's my personal headcanon that Lydia developed taxidermy as a hobby down in her dark room, and the birds were a strange gift from an unusual child to a disturbed father. Tacking this on at the end because it's not canon.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

I want to talk about Elvira now.

That's right, this smoking bombshell. Why, you ask? Well, because she's Lydia's idol!

Elvira's Movie Macabre was running from 1981-1986, right around Lydia's formative years. Lydia styles her entire look around her, though her execution is that of a self-conscious awkward teenager. It had to be Elvira too, not Vampira, because Elvira made the spiky bangs famous. Lydia loves Elvira so much that she mirrored not only her personal aesthetics after her, but also her career; her Ghost House television show.

Ghost House has many of the same core components of Elvira's Movie Macabre, namely a vintage boob tube, an antique couch, and a goth babe to host. Lydia has most of the ingredients, but what she lacks is Elvira's chutzpah. That's where Betelgeuse comes into play.

Elvira IS Betelgeuse. They have the same crude humor, the same one-liners, the same superhuman cartoon character ability to change into ridiculous costumes at the drop of a hat to put on a skit, and they both have a knack for breaking into spontaneous song and dance.

Actual Elvira quotes:

"There's nothing wrong with G-rated movies as long as there's lots of sex and violence."

"I've seen people's court! I'm entitled to one phone call and a strip search!"

Need I go on?

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) is a great movie released the same year as Beetlejuice with many interesting components that must have been inspirational to Tim. I wish I could cover everything in it but I could go on for days and we would never get to Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001), which is much more interesting to talk about in the context of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

You see, Elvira's Haunted Hills is a film that parodies the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Vincent Price, and the gothic horror genre as a whole. And if all that wasn't reason enough to mention it here, I bring the plot to the table (spoilers ahead):

The film opens on Elvira having a vivid nightmare. It ends on Elvira discovering that her entire stay at the haunted castle was a hallucination. The castle had been destroyed one-hundred years prior to the events of the film.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has two B&W sequences. There's Betelgeuse's origin story, which is a reference to Mario Bava's Black Sunday (the Mario Bava references will be getting their own dedicated segment on this post one day) and then there's the opening Warner Brothers animation, which sets a particular tone when bereft of its familiar nostalgic golden luster.

It is not insignificant that Beetlejuice: the Animated Series was also known to utilize B&W, typically when referencing older media such as The Twilight Zone and the Noir genre. The most interesting application of it when speaking in the context of the sequel, however, is in S4E28: It's a Wonderful Afterlife.

It's a Wonderful Life is the most parodied film of all time. As far as I'm concerned, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is just another parody to add to the list.

Sidenote: BJ:TAS also parodied The Wizard of Oz in the same season as "It's a Wonderful Afterlife", S4E52: The Wizard of Ooze. This is how it ends:

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

In retrospect, I think it is important to cover Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.

Elvira's arc in this film, again, is an almost beat-for-beat mirror of Lydia's in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the difference being that the film opens on Elvira quitting her career when it threatens her identity, only reviving it at the end when her work can once more align with who she is. Contrast this with Lydia, whose work is drowning her and yet she clings to it under the mistaken belief that it is her identity. Only through quitting is she able to find happiness.

The inciting incident in Elvira's film is the death of her great aunt Morgana Talbot, allowing her to quit her job and move to Fallwell, Massachusetts on a whim for the reading of the will. Compare with Charles' death prompting Lydia and the family to return to Winter River.

Other elements of note: Mistress of the Dark has multiple dream sequences and ends on a big song and dance number. The plot revolves around how Elvira's promiscuous, problematic behavior shakes up the puritanical town of Fallwell, culminating in a literal witch hunt wherein the locals attempt to burn Elvira at the stake.

I believe the social commentary of this reference speaks for itself.

While we're talking about 80's movie references, I'm going to go ahead and slip this comparison in here.

Remind anyone of anything?

"I love a good dream sequence."

"As the World Falls Down" is a famous dream sequence, and also one of David Bowie's most popular and well-known love ballads. Labyrinth was released two years prior to Beetlejuice and the two are constantly compared to one another as beloved 80's fantasy coming-of-age films.

In Labyrinth, the Goblin King Jareth casts himself as the villain of Sarah's fantasies because he is in love with her.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

I'm going to talk about Ed Wood now, and Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Ed Wood is famous for being posthumously named the Worst Director of All Time. From his wiki:

Does this style sound familiar? Please visit the pink link and read over his death. Tim found his story so tragic and beautiful that he immortalized it in his first ever biographical work, a B&W film starring Johnny Depp in the titular role. The film follows Ed's lackluster life and career, culminating in the creation of his masterpiece: Plan 9.

The climax of the film has Ed storming off set in frustration and meeting Orson Welles in a chance encounter at a bar, who rekindles Ed's inspiration by advising him to assert his vision and resist artistic changes imposed onto him by sponsors. Filming for Plan 9 finishes with Ed taking action against his producers' wishes.

Plan 9 From Outer Space contains a segment in which the lighting changes from night to day and back to night again all in the same scene. It has been pointed at and ridiculed for decades as the epitome of incompetent film-making.

I now present every bizarre Day/Night change in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice:

The film opens on a thunderstorm at night in Winter River. When we leave Delia's studio, it's daylight and the ground is wet from rain.

When Rory calls Betelgeuse's name three times, it's daylight and abruptly changes to night within the model. However, there's a mockery of daylight coming through the windows in the therapist's office.

The sun only appears on screen while we're viewing Jeremy's tree. After that, it disappears and never reappears.

Daylight comes back when Lydia quits Ghost House, and night returns for good when she wakes from the dream. The thunderstorm from the opening is still pouring.

Thank you @jadeluz-official for doing that homework for me.

But why reference Ed Wood at all? It has always been my belief that someone high up in the chain censored beetlebabes behind the scenes long before any sequels were ever even approved to be written. We know the cartoon was heavily censored. It only tracks that any sequel projects would have faced lots of sanitizing opposition as well. Following this thread, paying homage to Ed Wood in this way with this campy, highly-criticized, nonsensical, non-sequitor sequel full of "plot holes" and "idiosyncratic stories" completes a circle for Tim I think.

Sidenote: Plan 9 From Outer Space contains a cameo from Vampira, who famously sued Elvira for "stealing" her persona and held a lifelong grudge against her.

[xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx]

I talk about it so often on my blog that I forget the average fan isn't aware of certain fandom lore. Linking it in here to provide context for why so many beetlebabes shippers believe that Lydia and Betelgeuse are married in the cartoon.

Personally, I have always believed that in Beetlejuice he got the ring on her finger and the priest said "and wife" right as the sandworm crashed through the ceiling. I still believe it.

[vulstare]

and her child

I actually drew this for my mom, she likes the tarot stuff. I'm skeptical about it, but I can appreciate the good artistical aesthetic

and that's the bearded vulture of course, my beloved

[cxtxphile]

NEED TO TEST WITH TOO PEEPL

GUESS WHOS STILL MOURNING THE FINALE OF THIS SHOW LIKE MY OWN FATHER DIED!!!!! THIS GUY!!!!!!!!!

[butchjuice]

[mitsu-14136]

I miss when they ran the club together ❤

[kererek]

😤

[cxtxphile]

EVERYONE shut the FACK UP IM ON PUTER

[cxtxphile]

a real man jogs with his autism creature pony.

THERE ISN'T ENOUGH JAHAN CONTENT AND I'M TIRED OF IT‼️ HE WAS A GOOD BOY‼️

nandor is a Horse Girl and people forget this absolutely Crucial Aspect of his character and i will no longer allow it to be ignored. we will ALL feed him berries from our own mouths.

he's a silver/white akhal-teke/arabian/etc and he's very handsome :))

[atanasartandillustration]

Nandermo art dump to conmemorate the ending of a show that has given me so much ❤️

I'll be forever grateful to wwdits for bringing me amazing and talented friends, helping me recover the childlike joy in drawing, and giving me some life lessons too. All of it I'll bring with me forever so I'm not really saying goodbye. I'm determined to turn everything this show has given me into the best thing I can create out of it ❤️

And talking about friends, most of this art is birthday art! Shout out to @rosewaterraindrops , @indashadows, @darkshrimpemotions, and @weakformemo thank you for being amazing ❤️ also to my dear friend @someguywife who did a gorgeous redraw of the last one so check it out 🫵🫵

[beansprean]

doodles from s6!!! its been an honor goofin with yall

Support me on Patreon!

(ID in alt and under cut)

ID: 1. Waist up of Nandor from season 6 episode 9 on a mottled green background. He has his hands on his hips and is ginning nervously, shouting, "Your rejection can't hurt me because I wasn't paying attention!"

2. Busts of Guillermo and Nadja from season 6 episode 9 both spattered with blood. Guillermo is on a dark background and staring into the middle distance with crazy eyes, a barely there smile on his face. Nadja is on a pink background and smiling adorably, looking sated and content. Text points to them both and says "killing and maiming is enrichment".

3. Shot from inside Guillermo's shed, Guillermo in profile in the foreground tying at his laptop. He looks up as, in the background, Nandor opens the door and peeks his head in, eyes large and shiny and weeping. He says, in the form of a tweet from sadderlizards, "bro can you come over i miss the way you smell."

4. Jerry sitting at a table, the Guide standing at his side and leaning her hands on the table heavily, head dipped toward him. With wide eyes and a slightly crazed grin, she flirts, in the form of a tumblr post from @muzzlekiss, "if you put your hand on my throat you can watch my brain kick down several gears like a prey animal that knows it's done running."

5a. Waist up of Guillermo on a greenish background, holding a walkie talkie in one hand and pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. Looking sick, he says, in the form of a tweet from alolaneggs, "Guy who doesn't respect the walkie talkie rules: Ugh I'm so hungover." 5b. Chest up of Laszlo sitting at a table with a bluish background, one hand holding up a walkie talkie and the other tapping at the table surface. He grins salaciously at the walkie talkie and replies with the rest of the tweet, "Guy who does: Really? [eyes emoji] Over." /end ID