It's so hard having favourites. Very restrictive - I like different things, at different times, for different reasons. However I think everyone has a film that they can always watch. When there is nothing else on you pop the DVD in, when you are browsing through channels and you chance upon it you stop surfing.
Beetlejuice is that film for me. I was four when it was made, and not much older the first time I saw it, and yet it never scared me, just fascinated me. Macabre though it is, it actually took all the fear out of death for me. Burton's stripes and swirls fascinated me from the onset, the homemade horror of it appealed to me - it was like a trip inside an imagination your parents didn't want you to see. And I see so much of his future films that I enjoy in these earlier baby steps. Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice is still one of my favourite villians - his diabolical plans are in no way personal, and he makes no apologies for his revolting behaviour, or wanting to marry a minor (Hmm - dodge). The hysterical concept of the after life being a civil servant run nightmare, staffed by suicide victims, dawned on me as I grew older, and appealed to my flippant sense of humour, and despite the strangeness of the host of characters, I find the wholesome, sweetness of the Maitlands and their floral house quite endearing (although it has always upset me that poor Geena Davis had to spend eternity in that god awful dress).
So yes, that is my favourite film. If you feel like a dose of young Burton, with some Winona, gothic humor, stop motion and Harry Belafonte thrown in, then pop down to your video store or onto Amazon now and organise that shit!
