Beetlejuice Page #19

There's a moment of stunned silence, and then the DEETZs and

their two guests -- without saying a word -- get up and begin

politely to applaud.

INT:
MODEL WHOREHOUSE -- NIGHT

Old-fashioned, turn-of-the-century, parody of Storyville. BEETLE

JUICE is surrounded with horned lovelies, drinking champagne,

carousing. The song "Honky Tonk Angel" is playing on a piano.

INT:
ATTIC -- NIGHT

BARBARA and ADAM, in high dudgeon, are staring down at the model.

The whorehouse is garishly lighted -- and we hear the music only

faintly.

ADAM:

I did not build a

cathouse for Winter River.

He reaches down and lifts off the roof of the cathouse.

INT:
MODEL WHOREHOUSE -- NIGHT

The roof comes off. The horned lovelies scatter with little

squeals of fright.

BEETLE JUICE:

You went to a party.

Thought I'd have a little

party of my own. How'd it

go, guys?

BARBARA:

It went great. Now it looks

like we're going to spend the

next hundred and thirty-two

years doing parlor tricks.

ADAM:

It didn't scare them a bit.

They applauded. Are you going

to be able to give us some

real help?

BEETLE JUICE:

Yeah. Sure. So you're asking

me to really help you?

BARBARA & ADAM

Yes, we are.

BEETLE JUICE:

Then I'll put my thinking cap

on. And you two guys don't

have to worry about anything

anymore.

ADAM replaces the roof, and it shakes the whole house.

BEETLE JUICE sits alone in the whorehouse parlor, sipping

champagne. He has a wry smile on his face. Everything is going

according to plan.

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INT:
WINTER RIVER HIGH SCHOOL CAFETERIA -- NOON

We open on a large banner reading: WELCOME BACK WINTER RIVER

BADGERS:

We pan off the banner to three hundred stunned-looking Badgers,

the freshest-faced crop of wholesome American teens ever

assembled in one cafeteria.

They all stare dumbfounded at...

LYDIA DEETZ:

sitting all alone in full DEATH ROCKER regalia. She wears a T-

shirt emblazoned with a holographic image of the CHEST-BURSTER

from ALIEN; a skirt that appears to be made of barbed wire;

Nefertiti eye make-up; earrings that are dangling mouse skulls.

Completing the ensemble is a pair of high-heeled boots with a

hobble bar attached.

Sitting in front of her is a single half-pint container of white

milk.

From the opposite side of the room, an intrepid female BADGER

gets up and crosses to LYDIA. She's blonde and sweet, and

obviously drew the short straw.

LYDIA eyes her approach darkly.

The BADGER reaches LYDIA's table.

BADGER:

Cheerleader tryouts are

Saturday.

LYDIA:

Great. I'll be in New

York.

EXT:
HOUSE -- DAY

It actually looks good -- at least from the outside. Calm and

sedate.

It even seems to turn Norman Rockwell-time when a big yellow

schoolbus arrives and deposits CATHY on the front lawn.

The entire busful of children lean out of the windows to wave

frantically at CATHY -- she was evidently a hit at school. When

the bus takes off, CATHY goes up the front steps of her house,

and in at the front door.

INT:
FOYER AND LIVING ROOM -- DAY

OTHO's worked his magic, and the house is exactly as DELIA

probably wanted it. Fashionable in the extremity of the term,

angling for a spread in Architectural Digest. Garish,

uncomfortable, expensive, not meant in any serious way for human

habitation.

CATHY:

Hi mom.

DELIA:

I'm four minutes off.

DELIA is in the corner of the living room, working on her water

clock. This is a tall, enormous, narrow sculpture -- reaching

floor to ceiling, and then stretching up through a hole carved

through to the next floor. It's a mass of small buckets, dishes,

drains, pipes, levers, and counter-weights with running water

keeping the whole thing in tremulous motion. It somehow also

manages to keep the time on a little dial that's set on a kind of

eye-stalk protruding into the room.

BACK TO SCENE --

DELIA is making fine-tuning adjustments.

CATHY:

I'm going upstairs to do

homework, Mom.

DELIA:

I know where you're going,

you're going up to the attic.

CATHY:

Just for a little while.

DELIA:

They know about the thirtieth.

CATHY:

I told them.

DELIA:

This housewarming party is

very important to your father

and me. And they had better

come across. They're not

getting a free ride in this

house.

CATHY starts up the stairs.

CATHY:

I'll remind them.

DELIA calls after her daughter.

DELIA:

Something spectacular, Cathy!

When CATHY is out of hearing.

DELIA (cont)

Then out they go.

INT:
SECOND FLOOR HALLWAY -- DAY

CATHY comes up from the first floor. She drops her book bag

inside the door of her room, and goes softly on. She's going to

pass the open door of her father's study. He's talking to his

ex-wife and agent on the telephone.

CATHY starts to creep by the room, but suddenly

CHARLES'S ARM

reaches out and grabs her, and pulls her inside.

INT:
CHARLES'S STUDY -- DAY

As usual, two or three printers are going full blast.

CHARLES hangs up the telephone, and hugs CATHY close.

CHARLES:

You know what?

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