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Hammy, re: "Well, I am thinking of ripping in on this thread all week on the road, if for any reason at all, I just love the movie beetleguise... I am curious if it was based on any actuall reality (I havent read a thing yet, I have to take Jenna on driving lessons today, then host a small swim party, then pack off for 7 hour drive and a 0400 delivery."

Well, I was very impressed with the "Beteljuice" movie as shown in theaters, and assumed it was based more on a general reading of Spiritualist literature and fiction based on it rather than on modern ghost and haunted house research by parapyschologists and paranormal investigators. All the basic plot elements are part of the traditional Spiritualist tradition -- people gradually discovering they are "dead", becoming "ghosts" in their own house and "haunting" the new residents etc. And a lot of the details seem to be from the same source -- "handbooks for the deceased", "Spirit Guides" who behave like bureaucrats or con-artists, etc. Another example would be line in the video you showed about how the living "won't" rather than "can't" see the "dead" -- one of the basic Spiritualist teachings is that everyone has the power to perceive and communicate with spirits if they will only learn to use it. Of course, what I was looking for the hardest when I saw the movie was traces of the WiH ideas, and I really didn't find anything that wasn't already part of Spiritualist tradition.

And it was until a year or so later that I found out the facts described below, which portray the movie's origin from an entirely different perspective. The original script as described below sounds like it was written by someone whose knowledge of the subject was derived mostly from other movies about ghosts and hauntings, especially a lot of the contemporary ones that were also gory horror movies. My guess is that the change was made because the plot described in the Wiki article sounds like an imitation of other movies, and the producers decided to go for something more original. Since there were more non-horror ghost movies scripted from a "scientific paranormal" perspective than from a traditional Spiritualist perspective, they went for the latter, and IMO made one of the best movies of this type I've ever seen....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlejuice

Michael McDowell's original script is far less comedic and much more violent; the Maitlands' car crash is depicted graphically, with Barbara's arm being crushed and the audience hearing their screams for help as they slowly drown in the river. A reference to this remained in all versions of the script, as Barbara remarks that her arm feels cold upon returning home as a ghost. Instead of possessing the Deetzes and forcing them to dance during dinner, the Maitlands cause a vine-patterned carpet to come to life and attack the Deetzes by tangling them to their chairs. The character of Betelgeuse-envisioned by McDowell as a winged demon who takes on the form of a short Middle Eastern man-is also intent on killing the Deetzes rather than scaring them, and wants to rape Lydia instead of marry her. This version of Betelgeuse only needs to be exhumed from his grave to be summoned, after which he is free to wreak havoc; he cannot be summoned or controlled by saying his name three times, and wanders the world freely, appearing to torment different characters in different manifestations, such as a punk rocker (to try and seduce Lydia) and an IRS Agent (to subject Charles to a fake audit). McDowell's script also featured a second Deetz child, nine-year-old Cathy, the only person to see the Maitlands and the subject of Betelgeuse's homicidal wrath in the film's climax, during which he mutilates her while in the form of a rabid squirrel before revealing his true form. The film was to have concluded with the Maitlands, Deetzes, and Otho conducting an exorcism ritual that destroys Betelgeuse, and the Maitlands transforming into miniature versions of themselves and moving into Adam's model of their home, which they refurbish to look like their house before the Deetzes moved in.[8]

Warren Skaaren's rewrite drastically shifted the film's tone, indicating the graphic nature of the Maitlands' deaths while depicting the afterlife as a complex bureaucracy. Skaaren's rewrite also altered McDowell's depiction of the limbo that keeps Barbara and Adam trapped inside of their home; in McDowell's script, it takes the form of a massive, empty void filled with giant clock gears that shred the fabric of time and space as they move. Skaaren had Barbara and Adam encounter different limbos every time they leave their home, including the "clock world," and the Sandworm's world, identified as Saturn's moon Titan. Skaaren also introduced the leitmotif of music accompanying Barbara and Adam's ghostly hijinks, although his script specified Motown tunes instead of Harry Belafonte, and was to have concluded with Lydia dancing to When a Man Loves a Woman. Skaaren's first draft retained some of the more sinister characteristics of McDowell's Betelgeuse, but toned down the character to make him a troublesome pervert rather than blatantly murderous. Betelgeuse's true form was that of the Middle Eastern man, and much of his dialogue was written in Ebonics. This version concluded with the Deetzes returning to New York and leaving Lydia in the care of the Maitlands, who with Lydia's help transform the exterior of their home into a stereotypical haunted house while returning the interior to its previous state.[9]

Hammy, re: "Once you become beetleguise buddies with your dispatcher you get primo money miles... like I am going to be in Dallas tomorrow and home with lots of $$$$ Saturday... I cant wait to pay taxes"

Well, if I was in your shoes, I'd think it was way cool to be "beetleguise boddies" with my dispatcher, but I'd have some second thoughts about doing the same with The Boss -- I'd get paranoid that he'd end up handing me the "Handbook for the Recently Terminated"! <G>

Hammy, re: "Ok, so look away from the light to avoid the priest, and bring a zagnut.... absolutely a must"

I vaguely remembered that there was a scene involving a Zagnut bar in the "Beetlejuice" movie, so I ran a Google and came up with: "In the movie Beetlejuice, the title character (Michael Keaton) baits a housefly with a Zagnut. He lures the fly near his grave and then pulls it into the ground. We hear the fly (or perhaps Beetlejuice mockingly) screaming, 'Help Me! Help Me! Help Meeee!' Beetlejuice promptly devours the fly like candy and tosses the candy bar aside." Now, I'd totally forgotten those lines of dalog, which of course are from the original Vincent Price movie, "The Fly".....