I still have a problem with Adam & Barbara’s Beetlejuice Deaths

The chaos in Beetlejuice was triggered by Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis), who died at the beginning of the movie, and I still have a problem with their deaths that continued throughout the movie. In 1988, after making his feature directorial debut with Play Pee-wee’s Big Adventure Three years earlier, Tim Burton showed his unique visual style in BeetlejuiceWhile also giving the audience a taste of the type of stories he would continue to cover. Beetlejuice was a critical and commercial success, and finally got a sequel in 2024 simply titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice Introducing the Maitlands, a young married couple who died in a car accident. However, they are unaware that they have died until their house is sold and the Deets move in. After their attempts to scare the Deets fail, the Maitlands call on chaotic bio-exorcist Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) for help, but his methods are too. Phil. Through it all, the Maitlands bond with the Deets’ teenage daughter, Lydia (Winona Ryder), the only one who can see them. Beetlejuice Also introduced some of the rules of the Netherworld, and because of this there is one thing that bothers me about the Maitlands.

Adam & Barbara are not like other ghosts in Beetlejuice

Adam and Barbara don’t follow the rules of the afterlife

When the Maitlands finally read the Handbook for the recently deceased and go into the netherworld in hopes of getting the answers they need, it becomes clear that, When someone dies, their ghosts retain their final appearance. This means that, if someone dies eaten by a shark (as happened to Charles Dets), they will show up in the underworld with the parts of their body that the shark ate missing, or if they burn to death after falling asleep while smoking ( As happened to one of the ghosts in the waiting room), they will show up burned to a crisp.

However, the Maitlands seem to have skipped this rule somehow. Adam and Barbara die when, after swerving to avoid hitting a dog, their car crashes through the side of a covered bridge and falls into the river. When the Maitlands return to their home, they are soaking wet, but they dry at one point and stay dry the rest of the movie. According to the rules in the handbook, The Maitlands should have been soaking wet or, at least, showing signs of having died by drowning The whole movie.

Even the ghost of Astrid’s (Jenna Ortega) father, Richard, in Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis shown with blue skin and small fish on his body, as he died in the Amazon River. While the Maitlands are wet or dry, it doesn’t really affect their history Beetlejuice, It bothers me how they seem to have skipped this rule for no apparent reasonBut I understand that there would have been some behind-the-scenes challenges if they had followed the rule.

Why Adam and Barbara Aren’t Soaking Wet After Drowning in the Remains of Beetlejuice

There are great reasons why the Maitlands skipped the afterlife rule

Adam and Barbara Maitland look like they did when they died, ultimately, not practical at all. All the ghosts in the waiting room keeping their final appearances work because most of them don’t move at all and only appear briefly, but Keeping the wet look at Baldwin and Davis would have been a pain for everyone involved. Having Baldwin and Davis constantly wear wet clothes and have their hair and faces wet all the time would not have been practical, so keeping it dry for the rest of the movie was an artistic solution.

Some viewers have argued that, maybe, the appearance of a ghost is not locked until they understand that they are dead, which is why the Maitlands are so far as to dry, because it took them a while to realize what happened. Whatever the in-universe reason for this, at least Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis didn’t have to wear uncomfortable, heavy, wet clothes through most of Beetlejuice.