Movie fans have always been keen to dive deeper into their favourite films to bring about their own theories on what happened. Behind the script, if you will.
One of which has recently come about as to the deaths of Adam and Barbara Maitland (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) in Tim Burtons 1988 classic Beetlejuice.
Mere minutes into the film, old mate Adam is driving along with his wife, Barbara, when they swerve to avoid hitting a dog and thus plunge into a river near their house. Sorry, spoiler alert.
Fans of the movie have since simply accepted they died because of the dog swerving incident.
However, what if there was foul play involved? Bet you never thought of that, eh?
One Reddit user has been quiet for too long and decided to put their theory to the world – and its got a lot of nods from the rest of the Beetlejuice-universe.
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In a post titled: Adam & Barbara Maitland didnt die in an accident. They were murdered!, the sceptic believed the dastard realtor Jane had something to do with it all.
[They were murdered] By none other than their rudely overbearing realtor, Jane Butterfield. From the very moment Jane jump scares her way into the story shes hot on the Maitlands asses to allow her to sell their house, and its noted, that theyve refused repeatedly, they passionately wrote.
Adam & Barbara go into town almost immediately after Jane leaves their house and are killed returning home when their car goes off a bridge to avoid hitting a dog.
I propose that after being refused too many times and in need of a commission to care for her weirdass, sickly son, that Jane cut the brakes of the Maitlands car which is why they couldnt stop from going off the bridge. Damage to the car hid Janes sabotage and she walked away scot free with a hefty commission after a quick turnover of the house to the Deetzs.
This is some groundbreaking stuff and Jane really has a lot to answer for.
While many a theory is immediately dismissed by the fandom, this one seemed to have legs (even though some did debate the extent to which Jane would have had to cut the brake line in order to have an effect on the car during the return from the store and not be noticed by Adam on the drive there…).
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One agreed: That would explain why they are ghosts doing a haunting instead of moving on. Unfinished business and foul play leading to ghosts and all that.
Another added: Im good with it. I always thought she was creepy. And that does feel like a burtonesque tid bit! (sic)
However some mechanics werent buying it, as one said: She wouldve had to research how to perfectly cut the line so it lasted longer, and she wouldve had to been lucky that Adam wouldnt notice any difference in his brakes, while also having the brakes only go out at the perfect time for it to matter at the bridge.
Thats a lot of coincidental stuff that has to come together for it to work.
Look, whether Jane messed with the mechanics or not, the movie would have been so depressing had we just been stuck with Adam and his miniature model of the town.
Catherine OHaras Delia and Winona Ryders Lydia really gave it some oomph.
Oh, and Beetlejuice.
Name a better excuse to rewatch this one. Well wait.
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