Michael Keaton is about to make your millennium, because Beetlejuice 2— aka Beetlejuice Beetlejuice– premieres in cinemas this weekend. And that makes this the perfect time to revisit the best scene from the original Beetlejuice: Catherine O’Hara and the rest of the cast lip-sync to “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song).”
The original Beetlejuice movie, as you can see streaming on Maxwas directed by Tim Burton and written by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren. Like many Tim Burton films, Beetlejuice injecting horror tropes with a dose of absurdity and silliness. Nowhere is that more true than in the scene where the poltergeist Betelgeuse possesses Catherine O’Hara and her family, in an attempt to scare them away from their new home.
If you need a refresher: Delia Deetz (O’Hara) and Charles Deetz (Jeffrey Jones) are fed up with their teenage daughter, Lydia (Winona Ryder), who claims she’s been communicating with ghosts in their new house. The Deetz family invites some friends over for dinner, and Lydia brings up the ghosts again. Delia scolds her daughter for spreading nonsense… and then suddenly opens her mouth as wide as it will go. “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song), a traditional Jamaican folk song, blows from Delia’s mouth like a record played through a phonograph.
The diners stare as O’Hara begins a rich lip sync and choreography. Jones too is pulled from his seat and forced to join O’Hara in her dance. The other guests (with the exception of Ryder, who is spared) find their limbs being pulled around in a sort of back-up dance.
But the real star of the show is O’Hara. She nails her ridiculous choreography with clean, precise movements and lip-syncs with perfectly timed, over-the-top enunciation—all while maintaining a look of abject terror on her face. After all, she doesn’t willingly dance to “Day-o (The Banana Boat Song).” The ghosts force her to sing about wanting to go home! It’s certainly a unique acting challenge, and O’Hara is more than welcome.
It’s a fun, weird scene that’s perfect for a fun, weird movie. Let’s just hope that the new Beetlejuice the film once again utilizes O’Hara’s lip-syncing skills. Ru Paul could never!